Washington Navy Yard Shooting and aftermath

[skippy1999]

NBCWashington ‏@nbcwashington 11s
BREAKING: Tonight's Nats v. Braves game has been CANCELED.

Completely the right thing to do.

[OldChelsea]

NBCWashington ‏@nbcwashington 11s
BREAKING: Tonight's Nats v. Braves game has been CANCELED.

The only sensible course.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Let's see if we can find a second source.  So far, Blarg Ladstuppor doesn't have it and I can't find it on WTOP.

[RobDibblesGhost]

Let's see if we can find a second source.  So far, Blarg Ladstuppor doesn't have it and I can't find it on WTOP.

Mark Zuckerman @ZuckermanCSN Just arrived at #Nats Park, where teams have been told game postponed, day-night doubleheader tomorrow. No official word though.

[GburgNatsFan]

I'll bet the Nats don't get to make this call, that it's an MLB responsibility. There's no other explanation for the ridiculous delay.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

second source - WPost at 3:11.  OF course,it was Kilgore talking to davey, so is it official?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/liveblog/wp/2013/09/16/shooting-at-washington-navy-yard/#liveblog-entry-17817

[Coladar]

Almost?

I still managed to write a paragraph about it. Unless you're saying for me, a paragraph = speechlessness.

[mitlen]

Props to MLB and the authorities for making the right decision.

[Coladar]

I still find it insane they took five plus hours to make the call, but at least they made the call. Considering the fact that they waited so long though, I have a sneaking suspicion it wasn't done for the reasons it should have been done.

Seems more likely they realized that all the parking lots were being used as command posts/bunkers, and that there was literally no practical way to have a baseball game unless they had it played in front of an empty stadium. It just couldn'8t have been done, even with Metro. That actually might have been sort of cool, and a workable way of doing this. Have the game, close the stadium. No fans at all. No staff, concession, nada. Just 50 or so souls playing baseball in an empty ballpark, televised of course.

Obviously MLB/Lerners wouldn't even have considered that for the financial hit it'd represent, but I think the idea of a major league game played in total silence, an empty park, would have been an amazing sight to watch on TV.

[mitlen]

I still find it insane they took five plus hours to make the call, but at least they made the call. Considering the fact that they waited so long though, I have a sneaking suspicion it wasn't done for the reasons it should have been done.

Seems more likely they realized that all the parking lots were being used as command posts/bunkers, and that there was literally no practical way to have a baseball game unless they had it played in front of an empty stadium. It just couldn'8t have been done, even with Metro. That actually might have been sort of cool, and a workable way of doing this. Have the game, close the stadium. No fans at all. No staff, concession, nada. Just 50 or so souls playing baseball in an empty ballpark, televised of course.

Obviously MLB/Lerners wouldn't even have considered that for the financial hit it'd represent, but I tbink the idea of a major league game played in total silence, an empty park, would have been an amazing sight to watch on TV.

I think it came from a higher authority than MLB.

[Coladar]

I think it came from a higher authority than MLB.

I'd like to think they had some common sense and decency, and not that they had to be ordered by the city/feds to cancel the game. If it ever comes out that it took the city/Feds telling MLB they could not have the game held tonight, and that MLB/Lerners wanted the game played otherwise, they deserve a crapstorm of criticism and hate.

[varoadking]

I think it came from a higher authority than MLB.

FBI, likely...

[HalfSmokes]

I think it came from a higher authority than MLB.

MPD asking if they want to pay overtime for 100 or so extra cops to ensure security?

[RL04]

Let's see if we can find a second source. 

CNN

http://www.cnn.com/

Nats Twitter:

Doubleheader tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Nationals&src=hash

[tomterp]

Dead shooter identified. 

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced the mounting death toll in a 2 p.m. news conference. The suspected shooter, identified by three law enforcement officials as Aaron Alexis, a man in his 30s from Texas, is among the dozen dead. Alexis was a military contractor, one of the officials said

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/police-search-for-active-shooter-on-grounds-of-washington-navy-yard-in-southeast-dc/2013/09/16/b1d72b9a-1ecb-11e3-b7d1-7153ad47b549_story.html?hpid=z2

[Ray D]

I think it came from a higher authority than MLB.

[mitlen]

Even on a messy day like this, you folks crack me up.   

[shoeshineboy]

I think they had to do two things. One was sort through the haze of reports and the second was to coordinate the make up game plans. The home team makes the call before a game starts but I would figure out of courtesy would discuss schedule with the Braves. The news reports are always hazy with lots of rumors. One of the alleged other two shooters was already ruled out. This could still end up being one guy. I think at noon there was still a lot of questions about whether this would be cleared up. If there had been a go ahead I would have enjoyed going. But clearly with metro closed and lots blocked the crowds would have been suppressed regardless. By 2ish it seemed the area wasn't going to be back to normal so I expected the cancellation. I didn't mind them waiting at first to get all the info on the plan but it still seemed to take way too long to announce. It is typical of their crappy staff.

[Moore Athletic]

Day-night; let's pay two! Parking should be fun and uncomplicated...

[Ray D]

The home team makes the call before a game starts

I don't think the Nationals had the authority to postpone. When it is the visiting team's last trip, MLB has to give permission.  That may have been in part responsible for the delay.

[blue911]

I think they had to do two things. One was sort through the haze of reports and the second was to coordinate the make up game plans. The home team makes the call before a game starts but I would figure out of courtesy would discuss schedule with the Braves. The news reports are always hazy with lots of rumors. One of the alleged other two shooters was already ruled out. This could still end up being one guy. I think at noon there was still a lot of questions about whether this would be cleared up. If there had been a go ahead I would have enjoyed going. But clearly with metro closed and lots blocked the crowds would have been suppressed regardless. By 2ish it seemed the area wasn't going to be back to normal so I expected the cancellation. I didn't mind them waiting at first to get all the info on the plan but it still seemed to take way too long to announce. It is typical of their crappy staff.

September games fall under the jurisdiction of MLB.

[Coladar]

I don't think the Nationals had the authority to postpone. When it is the visiting team's last trip, MLB has to give permission.  That may have been in part responsible for the delay.

And while that might explain it, I still don't buy it excuses it. Anybody anywhere in any organization should have realized in seconds this game does not get played. As I already said, this is not a "shooting in the city of a sports team." This is literally next door to Nat's Park. And it's DC, Capitol of the US, facing an act of terror. It's not a school shooting in Colorado - any act of violence on this scale in DC is a totally different beast from elsewhere, with a subsequent exponentially larger LEO response/investigation.

No matter how far up the call had to come from, it still should have been near immediate. And I'm not saying that because it was the right thing to do, but rather that it was utterly impossible that there was any chance whatsoever the area would clear out and traffic resume in time for a 7pm game. Nobody could have been stupid enough to think it would have, no matter where they're located.

Crap, we're just gonna be lucky if they don't end up cordoning off the Navy Yard for a five block radius permanently in response to this. I was telling someone earlier, you'd hope the lesson the Feds would learn from this would be that their ridiculous and intrusive security measures don't do diddly squat to stop someone from doing this, they just make it a living hell for the people who aren't crazy/terrorists. I grew up in this area in the 80s and 90s, and before 9/11 you never saw cement barricades and fences around every government installation, and everything was fine.

Heck, I used to eat at the Hot Shoppes cafeteria in Bailey's Crossroads every friday night with my family - the one that was in the DoD/Air Force building? No problem just waltzing right into this military, secure building to eat at the restaurant there. Now? The entire place is fenced off like a warzone, lowering cement blocks in the road, I'd be shot just walking to where we used to park, never mind where the Hot Shoppes once was inside.

But instead, you just know they'll be even more anal about security measures after this, especially around the Navy Yard.

[houston-nat]

Senior law enforcement officials identified the gunman as Aaron Alexis, 34. He was identified through his fingerprints.

According to the Navy, Mr. Alexis enlisted as a full-time reservist in May 2007 and left the service in January 2011. He served as an aviation electrician, and the highest rank he achieved was mate third class. From February 2008 to January 2011, he was assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 46, in Fort Worth.

The Navy said that Mr. Alexis had been awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/us/shooting-reported-at-washington-navy-yard.html?hp

[wpa2629]

Senior law enforcement officials identified the gunman as Aaron Alexis, 34. He was identified through his fingerprints.

According to the Navy, Mr. Alexis enlisted as a full-time reservist in May 2007 and left the service in January 2011. He served as an aviation electrician, and the highest rank he achieved was mate third class. From February 2008 to January 2011, he was assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 46, in Fort Worth.

The Navy said that Mr. Alexis had been awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/us/shooting-reported-at-washington-navy-yard.html?hp

That's just awful - what in the world would set a person off to do such a thing ... ?

[Coladar]

Senior law enforcement officials identified the gunman as Aaron Alexis, 34. He was identified through his fingerprints.

According to the Navy, Mr. Alexis enlisted as a full-time reservist in May 2007 and left the service in January 2011. He served as an aviation electrician, and the highest rank he achieved was mate third class. From February 2008 to January 2011, he was assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 46, in Fort Worth.

The Navy said that Mr. Alexis had been awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/us/shooting-reported-at-washington-navy-yard.html?hp

So everything about there being other suspects has now been proven incorrect/ruled out?

Not surprising, in fact expected, but still... you'd think these idiots in the media would learn. Almost every shooting we hear paranoid delusions from the press about multiple suspects roaming the streets slaughtering, quickly eliminated when we discover it's just a crazy white male in their 20s or 30s.