Survivors of Navy Yard shooting settle lawsuits

She was sure she was about to die at Navy Yard, and five years later has built a new life
Washington Post
Anne E Marimow
September 15, 2018

The anniversary comes as a group of victims’ relatives and survivors, including Stultz, have reached settlements in their negligence lawsuits against two private companies that employed Alexis, who was fatally shot by police who flooded the scene. The agreements close a chapter for the 15 plaintiffs who went to federal court in Washington seeking a combined $189 million in claimed damages.

Lori Lee Stultz no longer works at the Washington Navy Yard, where she escaped a mass shooting in 2013. She now runs a linens company that she credits with helping her heal. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

When the first shots were fired inside Building 197 at the Washington Navy Yard, Lori Lee Stultz huddled beneath a desk with two colleagues, gripping their hands and trying to stay quiet, certain they’d be killed.

All around her, glass shattered, fire alarms blared, desk phones rang incessantly, and a colleague screamed, “Help me!”

The shooter, Aaron Alexis, gunned down 12 Navy civilian personnel and contractors that morning in September 2013, including too many of Stultz’s friends and colleagues from 15 years at the Navy Yard.

Stultz, of Arlington, and about 20 other survivors from Building 197 plan to gather Sunday to mark five years since the mass shooting.

“You become part of a strange community that no one else understands. We’re not crying; we’re just remembering,” Stultz said. “You can’t really talk to other people about it. It’s just upsetting, and they don’t know what to say.”
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