Alexis's friend noticed a change in his personality, but no hint at Monday’s shooting. Friend: Alexis wanted to leave U.S.

Aaron Alexis, 34, who has been identified as the gunman in Monday’s shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, was “very frustrated with the government” regarding payment for a contract trip, which led him to make statements about “how he wanted to move out of America,” a friend said Tuesday.

“And I know he expressed a lot of frustration and a lot towards that. That’s when I first started hearing statements about how he wanted to move out of America. He was very frustrated with the government and how as a veteran he didn’t feel like he was getting treated right or fairly,” said Kristi Suthamtewakul to CNN’s “New Day.”


Suthamtewakul, who was a friend of Alexis’s in Fort Worth, Texas, also said that Alexis “felt very slighted” about benefits for a contractor’s job in Japan that took place from November to December.

( Also on POLITICO: Subcontractor unaware of Alexis’s run-ins with the law)

“And he got back and he felt very slighted about his benefits at the time, financial issues, he wasn’t getting paid on time. He wasn’t getting paid what he was supposed to be getting paid. His point of contact wasn’t able to clearly explain to him what was going on and why his benefits were so messed up at the time,” she said.

According to Suthamtewakul, Alexis also spoke about wanting to change jobs, but car troubles were an issue.

“But I know he also talked about just wanting to change a different job and — but then he couldn’t because his car was in the shop. So that was another issue,” she said.

( Also on POLITICO: Alexis involved in prior shooting)

She also added that she later noticed a change in Alexis’s personality, but nothing that would hint at Monday’s shooting.

“I started to notice some changes in him, nothing that would alarm me to something of this magnitude,” she said.

Suthamtewakul said that living situations with pets “kind of exacerbated things,” and led to further change in his personality.

( PHOTOS: Shooting at Navy Yard)

“He started taking food that was mine and I would address him at certain times,” she said of how Alexis would act differently. “I just started to notice the change in personality with him there.”

Another friend from Fort Worth, Kevin McDaniel, who knew Alexis for about two or three years, spoke with Alexis before his move to Washington, D.C. and told CNN’s “Newsroom” that Alexis was “excited” about the new job.

Despite past shooting incidents, Suthamtewakul added that Alexis was a Buddhist who also expressed anger toward terrorism and said “it was very confusing” that he would have killed so many people Monday.

“I mean he was a Buddhist. Buddhists, apparently — it’s a peaceful religion. On top of that, you know he expressed the anger and hurt like all Americans at why terrorists would take down innocent people. It was very confusing,” she said.

McDaniel too echoed these sentiments saying Alexis was a “kind, jovial” person and that he did not know of Alexis’s prior record, but assumed if he had guns on his person, it would be because of his past military career.

Suthamtewakul said Alexis was involved with the Buddhist temple in Fort Worth and was very polite and friendly. She said Alexis, who was in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, shared “shock and disbelief like all Americans” of the day’s events and “anger towards the terrorists.”

“One of the things he talked about was 9/11 and how he was there and he saw the towers come down from where he was working. I don’t know at the time where he was, but he just cannot believe, he and his co-workers at the time were just in shock and disbelief like all Americans, that the twin towers were no longer there. He had an anger towards the terrorists who did that and took innocent people,” she said.