Hewlett Packard Fires Fort Lauderdale-Based Company in Wake of Navy Yard Shooting

The Fort Lauderdale-based computer firm that employed Washington Navy yard gunman Aaron Alexis on behalf of Hewlett Packard was fired by the tech giant Wednesday over "its failure to respond appropriately" to the shooter's mental health issues.
 
In a letter obtained by NBC News, an HP executive informed The Experts CEO Thomas Hosko Wednesday that the tech firm "has lost all confidence in The Experts ability to meet its contractual obligations and serve as an HP subcontractor." HP said it was terminating its contract with The Experts within 30 days as a result.

 
"HP has strict policies in place that require contractors and their employees to adhere to the highest standards of business practices and ethics," the company said in a statement. "Based on what we now know about The Experts' conduct, including its failure to respond appropriately to Aaron Alexis' mental health issues and certain incidents recently reported in the press, HP has terminated its relationship with The Experts."
 
A spokeswoman for The Experts said the company was disappointed by the decision.
 
"The Experts is disappointed in H-P's decision, as we have continued to meet all of our contractual obligations," the spokeswoman said in a statement. "The Experts had no greater insight into Alexis' mental health than H-P, particularly given that an H-P site manager closely supervised him, including during the events in Rhode Island."

 
The development came as the FBI released chilling surveillance video that showed Alexis pulling into the Navy Yard parking garage and running through a building with a sawed-off shotgun.
 
Alexis, 34, a government contractor from Ft. Worth, Texas, who had started an assignment at the Navy Yard only a week earlier, didn't appear to be motivated by any kind of workplace dispute, officials said in their account of the Sept. 16 massacre. Rather, Alexis "held a delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency, or ELF, electromagnetic waves," Valerie Parlave, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field division, said in a news conference outside her office Wednesday.
 
Scrawled onto the shotgun, purchased legally at a Northern Virginia gun shop two days earlier, were several phrases, including, "End to the torment," "My ELF weapon," and "Better off this way," Parlave said.

 
In documents recovered after the attack, Alexis indicated that the electromagnetic waves drove him to commit the hour-long morning assault, in which a dozen workers died and several more were injured.
 
"Ultra-low frequency attack is what I've been subject to for the last three months," Alexis wrote in a document obtained by authorities, Parlave said. "That is what has driven me to this."
 
Rhode Island police had said last week it had reported raising concerns with the Navy last August after Alexis called them to complain he was "hearing voices" and believed he was under surveillance while working on another job for The Experts in that state.
 
Last week, The Experts said a recent background check and security clearance confirmation showed no major issues for Alexis. A minor traffic violation was the only issue in Alexis’ late June background check and security clearance confirmation, according to the company.

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