Report: Navy Yard Shooter Stole Firearms Used in Rampage

Katie Pavlich | September 17, 2013 8:41 AM

UPDATE: According to the FBI, Alexis did not use an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle but instead used a shotgun and two handguns. The shotgun was purchased legally in Virginia and then brought illegally into Washington D.C. It is still believed Alexis stole the handguns off of police officers at the scene.

According to NBC Washington, Aaron Alexis, the man who carried out a deadly rampage at Washington D.C.'s Navy Yard yesterday, purchased a shotgun legally and passed a background check through the FBI NICS system. The other firearms Alexis used in the shooting ~~a semi-automatic rifle and a~~ were two 9mm semi-automatic handguns and were stolen after he made it onto the base.

Surveillance video shows the gunman entered the NAVSEA building, at 1336 Isaac Hull Ave., with a shotgun, law enforcement officials told News4's Jackie Bensen.

He shot a security officer in the head, killing him, and took his 9 mm pistol and a magazine of ammunition. The shooter then continued through the building and seemed to target his victims, who were mostly on the third and fourth floors, Bensen reported.

D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department and several other law enforcement agencies responded with active shooter teams.

During that response, a MPD officer was shot in the leg. The gunman was then shot by a FBI hostage response team, law enforcement sources told Bensen.

According to what witnesses are telling investigators, by the time the shootings ended, the gunman was seen with a semiautomatic 9 mm pistol and an AR-15 assault rifle. Authorities are investigating whether the gunman took the D.C. police officers’ rifle.

The officials also said Alexis obtained the assault rifle used in the shooting from a gun safe on the naval base. There’s where he may have also obtained a handgun, according to authorities.

One official who spoke to NBC News, however, cautioned there are still outstanding questions about where and how Alexis acquired the weapons used in the massacre.

H/T Bearing Arms