Former Seattle home of Navy yard shooter visited by FBI

SEATTLE — Hours after authorities believe 34-year-old Aaron Alexis went on a deadly shooting spree in the Washington D.C., Navy yards, FBI agents and Seattle police officers knocked on the door of the Seattle home where he used to live. It was also the site of Alexis’ first arrest for firing guns in anger, in 2004.

The FBI confirmed their agents were hoping to question Alexis’ relatives who still live in the Beacon Hill home. As they exited the home Monday night, the agents would not tell KIRO 7 if the family was cooperating.

"They don't want to talk to anybody right now,” said Seattle Police Lt. Kerry Guynn to KIRO 7.  “I'd give them awhile. I mean, getting in their position, you got one of their relatives involved in something like that, they've got to calm down and figure out what's going on themselves."

Someone who left the house told KIRO-7, “The family will never make a statement about what happened in DC.”

Alexis, had been arrested in Seattle in 2004 for shooting out a car's tires.

He was a former avionics electrician in the Navy and has lived in Seattle, where he still has family.

According to Seattle police, Alexis was arrested in 2004 for shooting out the tires on another man’s car in what he later told detectives was an angry blackout.

Alexis had been staying at a home on Beacon Hill next to a construction worksite, where two workers had parked their car.

The victims told officers they saw a man, later identified as Alexis, walk out of the home next to their worksite, pull a gun from his waistband and fire three shots into the rear tires of the Honda before walking  back to his home north of the construction site.

Officers responded but could not find Alexis.

Employees at the construction site told officers they saw Alexis staring at them for a month, and the owner of the construction business said Alexis may have been angry about parking around the site.

Officers who searched the home where Alexis was staying said they found a gun and ammunition in his room.  He was booked into the King County Jail for malicious mischief on June 3, 2004.

Officials with the Washington State Patrol also told KIRO 7 that Alexis was stopped and ticketed twice for second-degree negligent driving in Skagit County in 2004. He was fined $590.

After his arrest, police said Alexis told detectives he thought he had been mocked by construction workers the morning of the incident and said they had “disrespected him.” Alexis also claimed he had an anger-fueled “blackout,” and could not remember firing his gun at the men's car until an hour after the incident occurred, Seattle police said.

Alexis also told police he was present during “the tragic events of September 11, 2001” and described “how those events had disturbed him.”

Detectives later spoke with Alexis’ father, who lived in New York at the time.  He told them Alexis had anger management problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. He also said that his son had been an active participant in rescue attempts on September 11, 2001.

Alexis was also arrested in Fort Worth, Texas in 2010 for discharging a firearm in public.

Thirteen people, including a gunman, were killed in the attack on office workers at the heavily secured military installation, the Washington Navy Yard,  in the heart of the nation's capital Monday morning.

View photos from the scene here   and find story updates and videos here.

Police were looking for one other possible gunman wearing a military-style uniform.

Investigators said they had not established a motive for the shooting rampage, which unfolded less than four miles from the White House. As for whether it may have been a terrorist attack, Mayor Vincent Gray said: "We don't have any reason to think that at this stage."

An official said Alexis is believed to have gotten into the Navy yard by using someone else's identification card.

CBS News says Alexis was carrying the ID belonging to Rollie Chance, who was placed on Administrative Leave last October. Chance said he does not know Alexis.

The FBI is looking for anyone who might have information regarding Alexis.

Neighbors who know Alexis’ grandmother told KIRO 7 they believe they saw him visit her recently. "Yeah I think I saw that guy stop by y'know, and visit her,” said neighbor Tran Le. “I think he was there six months ago.”

Want to talk about the news of the day? Watch free streaming video on the KIRO 7 mobile app and iPad app, and join us here on Facebook.

KIRO