By TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. – The Florida family of a woman slain during the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard is the first to file a lawsuit against the government and defense contractors, alleging that officials ignored red flags about the killer’s deteriorating mental health.
The suit on behalf of the family of Mary DeLorenzo Knight was filed Tuesday morning in federal court in Tampa. The lawsuit named the Navy, the Department of Veterans Affairs and two defense contractors as defendants. It’s seeking at least $37.5 million in damages.
“We’re all just torn apart,” said Patricia DeLorenzo, the sister of the victim. “We just want to get through this.”
Mary DeLorenzo Knight was one of 12 people killed by Aaron Alexis on Sept. 16 before he was killed in a shootout with police.
The lawsuit said the contractor Alexis worked for should have told the Navy about his prior, and documented, mental health problems and that the Navy should not have given him security clearance. Navy officials have said they found no record the company alerted the Navy about his mental health.
The lawsuit said the VA failed to treat his mental illness when Alexis went to a VA emergency room Aug. 23 for insomnia and detailed three arrests involving Alexis and his post-traumatic stress disorder, anger management problems and alcohol abuse.
The VA did not respond for comment on Tuesday. A Navy spokeswoman acknowledged a request for comment regarding the lawsuit and said a public information officer would look into the matter.
The company that employed the Washington Navy Yard shooter, Fort Lauderdale- based The Experts, pulled his access to classified material for two days in August when mental health problems became evident, but restored it quickly and never told Navy officials about the withdrawal.
An initial Navy review revealed that The Experts ordered Alexis, a computer contractor, back to Washington, D.C., after a police incident in Rhode Island in August, according to senior U.S. officials. The company then withdrew his ability to access secret-level data for two days, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. It did not disclose why his access was reinstated. Less than six weeks later, the former Navy reservist gunned down 12 civilian workers in a Navy Yard building, and police fatally shot him.
The Experts did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Sidney Matthew, the Tallahassee, Fla.-based attorney for the DeLorenzo family, said that while officials ignored problems about Alexis’ mental health, the Navy could have stopped the shooting by requiring everyone to walk through a metal detector prior to entering the Navy Yard.
He said he hopes that this lawsuit will spur the Navy and other branches of the military to install such detectors.
“Mary DeLorenzo Knight’s life needs to stand for something,” he said. “We want change.”
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