James Rosen
McClatchy Newspapers
Sept. 17, 2013
The Washington Navy Yard, a former shipyard where Monday’s fatal shootings occurred, has a history of weak security with past reports citing poor entrance controls, video dead spots, inadequate lighting, malfunctioning alarms and other problems.
Building 197, which houses the Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters on the 65-acre campus along the Anacostia River, was the main site of the gunfire that claimed 13 lives, including that of the killer identified by police as Aaron Alexis, 34, of Fort Worth, Texas.
James Atkinson, a former military intelligence officer who now heads Granite Island Group in Gloucester, Mass., said the Navy hired his surveillance security firm in 2009 to test newly installed electronic security gates and other access controls inside Building 197.
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