The story behind the man who killed 12 in Washington

ON Aug 7, Sgt Frank Rosa of the police in Newport, Rhode Island, alerted his counterparts at the nearby naval station that a civilian defence contractor named Aaron Alexis had reported hearing voices coming from the floor and then the ceiling of his hotel room, while “some sort of microwave machine” bombarded him with “vibrations”.

Alexis had told Newport police that he was a “naval contractor” who often travelled and had got into an argument with somebody as he got on a plane in Virginia. Alexis said he believed that the person had had three men “follow him and keep him awake by sending vibrations though his body” after he landed in Rhode Island. He said he had not seen the trio, but that they had begun speaking to him through a wall after he checked into a Residence Inn in Newport.

Alexis packed up and moved to a hotel at the Naval Station Newport, he told the police, only for the voice to begin speaking through the floor and ceiling as well as the wall. He had called the police for help after he moved to the Marriott and initially told the responding officers that the voices were coming through the floor. He then said the voices were coming from the ceiling. He told of the “microwave machine” whose “vibrations” kept him from being able to sleep.