A dozen people died in a shooting rampage Monday at the Washington Navy Yard. It was the deadliest attack at a domestic military installation since November 2009, when an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas. Early Tuesday, the stories of some of those who died started to surface.
The partial list of names include:
— Michael Arnold, 59
— Sylvia Frasier, 53
— Kathy Gaarde, 62
— John Roger Johnson, 73
— Frank Kohler, 50
— Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46
— Vishnu Pandit, 61
Sylvia Frasier, 53, had worked at Naval Sea Systems Command as an information assurance manager since 2000, according to a LinkedIn profile in her name.
Frasier studied at Strayer University, earning a bachelor of science in computer information systems in 2000 and a master's in information systems in 2002. Her duties at NAVSEA included providing policy and guidance on network security, and assuring that all computer systems operated by the headquarters met Department of Navy and Department of Defense requirements.
She also led efforts "to establish and implement procedures to investigate security violations or incidents," according to the profile.
Her brother, James Frasier, declined comment Monday night.
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Kenneth Proctor, 46, worked as a civilian utilities foreman at the Navy Yard, his ex-wife, Evelyn Proctor, said. He spent 22 years working for the federal government, Evelyn Proctor said.
The Waldorf, Md., woman spoke to Kenneth early Monday morning before he left for work at the Navy Yard. It was his regular call. The high school sweethearts talked every day, even after they divorced this year after 19 years of marriage, and they shared custody of their two teenage sons.
She was in shock about her husband's death.
"He just went in there in the morning for breakfast," Proctor said Monday night of the building where the shooting took place. "He didn't even work in the building. It was a routine thing for him to go there in the morning for breakfast, and unfortunately it happened."
Proctor said she tried to call her ex-husband throughout the day and drove to the Navy Yard on Monday afternoon, fearing the worst. After waiting for about three hours alongside other relatives concerned about their loved ones, she was informed around 8 p.m. that he was among the dead. Officials did not detail the circumstances of his shooting, she said.
The Proctors married in 1994 and divorced this year. Their older son, Kenneth Proctor Jr., 17, enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school this spring and is in basic training in Oklahoma. Their younger son, Kendull Proctor, is 15.
"We were still very close. It wasn't a bitter divorce," Evelyn Proctor said. "We still talked every day, and we lived 10 minutes away from each other."
Kenneth Proctor was born and raised in Charles County, Md., where he lived until his death.
"He loved the Redskins. Loved his kids — a very loving, caring, gentle person. His kids meant a lot to him," Evelyn Proctor said.
'SINGLE SHOOTER' RESPONSIBLE
Earlier, US authorities probing the shooting spree at Washington's Navy Yard, which left 13 people dead and eight injured, said that one man only carried out the killings.
"We don't have any evidence or indication at this stage that there was another shooter, even though we haven't completely ruled that out," said Washington mayor Vincent Gray.
Police chief Cathy Lanier stressed that: "we do now feel comfortable that we have the single and sole person responsible for the loss of life inside of the base today.
"If anything changes as we continue to go forward, we certainly will make that available to the public," she told a briefing, "but, ... again, we are lifting the shelter in place" warning.
Police have identified the alleged lone gunman as Aaron Alexis of Forth Worth, Texas, who served in the Navy from 2007 to 2011 before becoming a defense subcontractor for computer giant Hewlett-Packard.
He was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.
Comment: Navy yard shooting highlights military's security flaws
Alexis, a former naval reservist, had been employed by a firm working on an HP contract to upgrade equipment used by the US Navy and Marine Corps, HP spokesman Michael Thacker said in an email.
"Aaron Alexis was an employee of a company called 'The Experts,' a subcontractor to an HP Enterprise Services contract to refresh equipment used on the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) network," he said.
The California-based company said it was "deeply saddened" by the shooting rampage at the Navy Yard, in which Alexis also lost his life after trading gunfire with police.
"HP is cooperating fully with law enforcement as requested," Thacker said.
It was unclear if the Defense Department or HP had been aware of Alexis' brushes with the law, which reportedly included two shooting incidents, before he was hired for the IT work.
Military officers said Alexis had a pattern of "misconduct" during his four-year service as a naval reservist.
13 KILLED IN SHOOTING RAMPAGE
A gunman opened fire at a base in the heart of Washington on Monday, killing 12 people and exchanging fire with police before losing his own life.
Police later identified the alleged shooter as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, of Forth Worth, Texas, who served full-time in the Navy from 2007 to 2011 before becoming a defense contractor.
FACTBOX: Who is Aaron Alexis, the suspected navy yard shooter?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation appealed to the public for information on the suspect, whose military service was marked by misconduct and who reportedly had once been arrested but not charged in Texas for shooting a bullet through his apartment ceiling.
"No piece of information is too small. We are looking to learn everything we can about his recent movements, his contacts and his associates," said Valerie Parlave, assistant director of the FBI's Washington field office.
The FBI released a photo of Alexis, an African-American who held the rank of an Aviation Electrician's Mate 3rd Class and had served full-time in a logistics support squadron in Forth Worth, according to the Navy.
Alexis reportedly had expressed an interest in Buddhism, friends told local media in Texas, while his four-year stint in the Navy was troubled.
"There is definitely a pattern of misconduct during his service," a US military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
The Navy had yet to release the precise nature of the suspect's work as a contractor.
The shooting sparked a massive show of force as police and federal agents descended on the Navy Yard, cordoning off streets only blocks from the US Capitol, home of Congress.
Officials gave no indication of any link to terrorism but said the motive for the attack on the installation was unknown.
President Barack Obama ordered that flags be flown at half mast in the US capital until Friday as a mark of respect for the dead.
Obama called the shooting a "cowardly act" and lamented that America was confronting "yet another mass shooting," saying troops in the military should not have to confront danger at home.
Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray said "we don't have any reason at this stage to suspect terrorism, but certainly it has not been ruled out."
He announced the number of dead from the shooting was at 13, with about dozen more wounded, including a police officer.
A second suspect was still being sought, an African-American male aged 40 to 50, clad in an olive-drab military-style uniform, authorities said.
Washington city police chief Cathy Lanier asked "that people stay out of the area until we give the all-clear."
Earlier media reports had said the shooter was armed with an assault rifle and had allegedly barricaded himself in a room in a headquarters building.
After the first reports of shots came at 8:20 am (1320 GMT) in the headquarters building of the Naval Sea Systems Command, police arrived within three minutes and exchanged fire in "multiple engagements" with the suspect, Lanier said.
It was unclear how the attacker could have penetrated the heavy security that surrounds the Navy Yard, which is located on the Anacostia River, less than two miles (three kilometers) from the Capitol.
But the suspect's work as a naval contractor raised the possibility that he had a pass that could gain him entry to the Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees ship-building programs tcarried out by defense firms.
A Washington police officer was among those injured in the rampage, and hospital officials said he suffered serious wounds to his legs but was expected to survive.
One employee at the Navy Yard, Patricia Ward, said she had just paid for her breakfast at a cafeteria when shots rang out.
"I was waiting for my friend to pay when we heard the gun shot. It was three gun shots straight in a row, 'pow-pow-pow,'" she told reporters.
"Three seconds later it was 'pow-pow-pow.' So it was like a total of seven gun shots. And we just started running."
As helicopters swarmed overhead, police earlier blocked off intersections around the Navy Yard and patrol boats moved in near the site along the banks of the Anacostia river.
Flights out of the nearby Reagan National Airport were briefly delayed and schools were on lockdown until anxious parents came to pick up their children in the afternoon.
The US Senate adjourned for the day as a precaution, and Washington's baseball team, the Nationals, whose stadium is adjacent to the Navy Yard, called off its Monday evening game.
About 3,000 people work at the naval facility, which dates back to the early 1800s and includes a naval history museum.
The complex also has a residence which serves as the home of the four-star chief of the US Navy, Admiral Jonathan Greenert.
