Name Game: Aaron Alexis

Update: There are new blog mentions, plus NBC News reporting from two days after the schooling, that Aaron Alexis created a website called Mohammed Salem. It is unknown why this was done, but intelligent speculation is that he was a merely fan of the retired soccer player, the current soccer player, the photojournalist, the newsman, or the singer named "Mohammed Salem." It is probably social media racism that some would try to paint this mentally disturbed Buddhist as a Muslim.

The name Aaron is from the Hebrew name אַהֲרֹן ('Aharon) which is most likely of unknown Egyptian origin. Other theories claim a Hebrew derivation, and suggest meanings such as "high mountain" or "exalted." In the Old Testament this name is borne by the older brother of Moses and the first high priest of the Israelites. He acted as a spokesman for his brother, and carried a miraculous rod. (Please note: Aaron Alexis attended Hillcrest High School.)

The name Alexis is derived from the Greek name Αλεξις (Alexis), which meant "helper" or "defender," derived from Greek αλεξω (alexo) "to defend, to help." This was the name of a 3rd-century BC Greek comic poet, and also of several saints.

The Washington Navy Yard shooter was identified as Aaron Alexis. Interesting that no middle name has ever been revealed.

In a combined form, Aaron Alexis would loosely mean the "exalted helper" or "defender from a high mountain." It is intriguing to read the first reports that the Washington Navy Yard shooter allegedly picked an elevated spot from which to shoot down upon several of the victims. Those accounts, however, were false. The reported shooter was said to have gone to the 4th floor of Building 197, supposedly assembled or revealed his weapon from a bag in a restroom, and then went down the halls shooting the workers randomly.

According to the New York Daily News,

Alexis worked for The Experts Inc., part of Hewlett-Packard Co., and the Navy subcontractor’s CEO, Thomas Hoshko, told Reuters that the gunman had a “secret clearance” and was scheduled, starting this month, to work out of the Navy Yard with a military-issued ID card. Hoshko said it was “not clear” if Alexis’ assignment was to start Monday.
Alexis — who attended Hillcrest High School in Queens and whose last address was in Fort Worth, Tex. — has gotten in trouble before for firing his guns.
He was arrested in Seattle in 2004 after he shot out the tires of another person’s car — an episode he would describe as a “blackout” driven by rage. He was also busted in Fort Worth in 2010 after he was accused of firing off a round from his weapon. The Navy discharged him in 2011 for “misconduct” issues, an official told The Washington Post.

Did Alexis use the same weapon as used at Newtown? There remains some confusion about that today. But at the early afternoon FBI news conference, police authorities noted that an AR-15 was not used.

The victims of the shooting include Arthur Daniels, 51, of Washington; Mary Francis Knight, 51 of Reston, Virginia; Gerald Read, 58, of Alexandria, Virginia; Martin Bodrog, 54, of Annandale, Virginia; and Richard Michael Ridgell, 52, of Westminster, Maryland.

On Monday night, officials identified: Michael Arnold, 59; Sylvia Frasier, 53; Kathy Gaarde, 62; John Roger Johnson, 73; Frank Kohler, 50; Vishnu Pandit, 61, and Kenneth Bernard Proctor, 46.