United States: 13 killed in a shootout in the offices of the Navy

A shooting at an office building in the U.S. Navy in Washington Monday morning killed 13 people , including the gunman whose motives remain unknown , and at least a dozen injured .
President Barack Obama has ordered flags to half-mast until Friday evening as a sign of respect for the victims , said the White House .
The shooting in the heart of the federal capital is the most important is being held on a military installation since the killing of 13 soldiers based at Fort Hood ( Texas ) in 2009.
The gunman was shot dead by police , called Aaron Alexis , a 34 year old Black Fort Worth ( Texas ) , announced Valerie Parlave an FBI official in charge of the investigation.
The Federal Police launched a public appeal for information . " We want to know everything possible about his recent movements , contacts and knowledge ," she has said.
Born in New York, he served as the Navy from 2007 to 2011, according to the U.S. Navy.
His motives are unknown and " there is no reason to think at this point " whether a terrorist act, said Washington Mayor Vincent Gray , but aside from this track office .
The authorities continued to check if Aaron Alexis has benefited or not from the complicity of another shooter , one of Black 1 , 75 meters older than fifty years with an olive green uniform, which was identified in a video . A third man , a white man wanted in the first place , was exonerated .
From the White House , President Barack Obama has denounced an act of " cowardly " and lamented that the country found " again face a mass shooting " this time targeting military and civilians employed by the military.
" They know the danger of being deployed overseas , but now they were faced with unimaginable violence , that they did not expect to meet here ," said the U.S. president.
The incident occurred at 8:20 ( 12:20 GMT) at the headquarters of the Naval Systems Command U.S. Navy ( NAVSEA ) in the neighborhood reconstruction Navy Yard, in the southeast of the city.
Aaron Lewis broke into the 197 building of the complex, which employs 3,000 people, and opened fire on several occasions.
"I heard three shots after + Pa , pa, pa + . Three seconds later , still + pa , pa, pa +". In total there have been seven shots . We started to run , "he told AFP Patricia Ward, an employee who was having breakfast in a cafeteria on the first floor .
To enter the building, you just have to show his badge but there is no metal detector , she said.
Another witness, Terry Durham , who also worked in the building 197, told CNN he saw the shooter. " We heard shots, he appeared in the hallway, he put us at gunpoint and fired at least two or three times. We ran towards the exit and continued to hear shots inside " has she said.
" tragic day "
By late afternoon , the toll was revised to 12 deaths , in addition to the shooter , and " at least a dozen injured ," said the mayor of Washington , Vincent Gray.
A police officer was shot in an exchange of fire with the gunman who was shot.
Medical Center in Washington , the chief medical officer Janis Orlowski reported three serious injuries transported in his hospital : a policeman and two women, one shot in the head but the bullet enters the skull.
The area under reconstruction and located near the river Anacosita was completed five blocks around . Schools in the perimeter were caulked , prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving , was a journalist from AFP.
A ballet of helicopters, police cars and emergency services went through the area, while ships patrolled the Anacostia River nearby.
Not far away , the buildings housing the Senate were curly "because of the possibility that the suspects remain at large " according to a security official , while the Pentagon , on the other side of the Potomac has strengthened its security " as a precaution ," said spokesman George Little.
The Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel spoke of a " tragic day " for the military and for the country.
Flights departing from the Ronald Reagan Airport, a few miles away have meanwhile been suspended for an hour and a half in the morning and a baseball game Washington Nationals, who had to face the Atlanta Braves Monday night their stage near the scene of the shooting has been postponed to Tuesday.
"I want to know what happened ," claimed a witness Freedom Mucatw , which saw dozens of people escape the " happy to be sound " building 197.
" I want to know if there were two shooters, if this is the adult version of Columbine ( where two students killed 12 people in their establishment in 1999) or whether it is someone upset that lost his job " .
source AFP