Monday, September 23, 2013

Interesting details of the Navy Yard shooting.

Received this email:
The following is from a 9-18-13 Facebook page of attorney Stephen G. DeNigris of Washington, D.C. Also see:
http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/features/featured/stories/local-attorney-dc-officers-union-says-navy-yard-understaffed-1948.shtml
I'm continuing to write about the Washington Navy Yard here because I have represented those wonderful police officers for fifteen years and the fact that this page has developed a fairly large following.
The call for the active shooter went out around 8:25 a.m. on Monday morning. As I noted in my earlier postings, only six police officers were on duty at the time with five of those officers in fixed posts. Chief of Police Mike McKinney was on road patrol and was the first to respond to the scene. He met the security officer (who was later killed) at the front door who told the chief that the shooter was on the 4th floor and warned him of the overlook into the atrium.
Chief McKinney put out the call for mutual assistance and at that time Captain Bobby Eason arrived. Both immediately went to the 4th Floor - it was chaotic as people fled for their lives - they got to the 4th floor and the shooter (we will not mention his name) had moved into a stairwell - there are 6 stairwells in that bldg. The police radios were not working inside the bldg.. and possibly dead - (we have had a number of issues with the Navy on providing adequate radios to officers - which has also fallen on deaf ears) and communications was virtually non-existent. In the meantime, the officers could see injured or deceased victims and were hearing gun shots. They headed toward the gun shots down to the third floor - someone had pulled the fire alarm making it extremely difficult for the two officers to hear where the shots were precisely coming from.
In the interim, the officers who were on fixed posts had closed up their posts and had to run almost half a mile from their posts to try and get to the NAVSEASYS building which is down on the Anacostia River. Why did they have to run??? Because the Navy had taken away their patrol cars as a cost savings measure. So now we have two officers in the NAVSEASYS Blgd - officers running a half mile because of no police cars after working all night, virtually no communications because of a poor radio system and the inability to switch over to the Metropolitan PD Radio frequency, as other police departments are able to do.
The Washington Navy Yard Police Officers still entered the building without concern for their own safety to try and stop this fellow. The security guard told the officers where the Chief and Capt were.
By then, the Chief and Capt were down on the third level and found two victims apparently dead. This guy was moving around. Seven minutes AFTER Chief McKinney sounded the request for mutual aid, MPD Officers started arriving. By then the chief and captain had been joined by two other security officers. Still shots were being fired and echoing through the building. Officers were teaming up with WNY Police Officers who knew the building layout.
At some point, this guy apparently made it to the first floor where he confronted the security officer - executed him and took his sidearm. He then headed back up the stairwell and was confronted by an MPD officer where they exchanged gun fire and an MPD Officer was shot multiple times in the legs. The shooter fled.
Washington Navy Yard Police Officers found the fallen officer and evacuated him to the rooftop for medevac - while other officers continued to hunt for this guy. This guy was now just shooting at anything that moved while people still fled the building. Finally he was confronted by a US Park Police Officer with am M-4, along with another police officer on the second floor who killed this guy with a shot to the head. And then it was over.
I'm disappointed that the coverage has not spoken about the heroism of the Washington Navy Yard Police Officers - the lack of equipment and the lack of manpower along with the Navy's general indifference to civilian law enforcement. But we WILL get that message out.
To chief McKinney, Captain Bobby Eason, FOP NDW Chairman Anthony Meely and all the WNY Officers who risked their lives, you are heroes in my eyes even if the Navy refuses to recognize your sacrifices.
Stephen G. DeNigris, Esq.

6 comments:

MamaLiberty said...

Budget cuts hell... mealy mouthed excuses at best.

Still no mention of the actual base problem, the only thing that would have stopped this, and quite possibly have prevented anyone from attempting such an attack: The vast majority of the people inside that building, on the whole damned base, were government mandated, unarmed HELPLESS VICTIMS.

Nobody in that building was rationally armed and ready to defend themselves or others. The MPD officer who exchanged fire with the attacker was obviously incapable of effective use of his weapon. How in hell could this attacker "execute" an armed security guard?

Hundreds of people in that building, lots and lots of cops, but they ALL had to wait around for a US Park Police Officer to show up - with a GUN - to end it?

How insane is that?

Tom Skoch said...

Mike, could you post a link to this lawyer's Facebook entry about the Navy Yard. I just looked at two of his FB pages and couldn't find it. Wonder if it was taken down.

JAG06 said...

I think the bigger question is why the security of the WNY, which includes the residence of the CNO, it the responsibility of a few civilian federal rent-a-cops. The Marine Barracks is only a few blocks away and they should be providing day-to-day security and threat response at the WNY. A squad of gung ho Marines would have cleared and secured Bldg 197 faster and with fewer casualties.

Anonymous said...

Of course they are downplaying their screw-ups; what else would you expect? Another example of sequestration!

Merle

Anonymous said...

Has there been any reports of hearing "Allah Akbar" while the shooting was going on? I heard the shooter was a Buddist. I have never met a violent Buddist.

Anonymous said...

Mama Liberty The government can't allow the military slaves to go about ARMED. What would the serfs think? Making people "HELPLESS VICTIMS" is the POINT. To make the "human cattle" totally at the whim and mercy of the overlords. The second point was to punish the military for not backing the "dear leaders" recent bid to become "god king". To show them "his power". Nothing we have seen or been told is truth-like the murder of "SEAL TEAM SIX" and Sandy Hook this is about power and control. It is about keeping us afraid.---Ray