'How this could happen is beyond belief,' the mayor said. Gray: Cuts 'put people at risk'

As questions grow about the access the gunman in Monday’s shooting had to Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said Tuesday that sequestration cut costs of projects, then “we put people at risk,” when asked whether it was about policy or money.

“Well it’s hard to know, we’ll continue with this investigation, but certainly as I look at, for example, sequestration which is about saving money in the federal government being spent, how we somehow skimped on what would be available for projects like this and then we put people at risk. You know, obviously 12 people have paid the ultimate price for whatever, you know, whatever was done to have this man on the base,” Gray said to CNN’s “New Day.”


( PHOTOS: Shooting at Navy Yard)

“How this could happen is beyond belief,” Gray said and he called Navy Yard “one of the most secure facilities in the nation.”

When asked if a city government employee had been discharged due to a record with a violent past, like the identified gunman Aaron Alexis, the mayor said the chance of the employee getting near his office would’ve been “absolutely zero.”

“I think absolutely zero. The vetting that would’ve been been done would’ve been absolutely thorough. There’s no question in my mind that this man’s past would have been revealed quite quickly, and he certainly would not have been permitted into sensitive positions,” Gray said.