Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Navy investigates gay sailor’s death in Calif.
07.03.2009 11:21am EDT
(San Diego) The death of a gay sailor who was killed as he stood guard at Camp Pendleton doesn’t appear to be a hate crime, officials said Thursday.
Seaman August Provost of Houston was found shot multiple times Tuesday in what investigators are calling a random act unrelated to the 29-year-old’s sexuality.“It is clear to the investigators right now that it could have been any sailor standing watch,” Navy spokesman Capt. Matt Brown told The Associated Press.
Some in the gay community had called for a hate crimes probe. Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairman of the San Diego Human Relations Commission, said Provost’s family told her that personnel on the base had been harassing the sailor.
Earlier in the day, Democratic Rep. Bob Filner of San Diego, who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he would call for a Defense Department probe to see if the killing was a hate crime.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has taken a “person of interest” into custody but had not filed any charges. Navy officials said he had made incriminating statements that tied him to the killing, though these statements did not constitute a confession.
Another sailor was questioned and released Wednesday.
Brown said Provost’s killer burned the guard shack to cover up evidence.
Brown described Provost as “a rising star in our Navy,” who entered the service in March 2008. He had completed basic training and subsequent technical schools and was beginning preparations for overseas deployment.
There will be pork in the tree tops when any of the armed services consider an act of violence as a “hate crime” if it is associated with a military person thought to be gay. And that is not so much different than what we see in civilian life.
What happened to this young man is a tragedy, and it could have happened to any of us. Considering its in California where I was born,raised and live, it does not surprise me as a African-American women. Not just because he was African-American and gay serving his country in which we all know there is a huge problem if you know your (statics) with race and sexual orientation issues here in California, but because he was a human being and deserved to live and enjoy his life. My heart goes out to those who cherished and loved him.
>This is certainly a hate crime.
Wow! All this certainty coming from nine paragraphs on a web site.
We don’t need a court system…we’ll just hand it over to you guys, and you can use your crystal balls.
Patience, please! Let’s get more details.
uh, Steve from Vt, you left out christians….muslims and blacks are hardly the “two groups that hate us the most”. It is Christians and white closeted men.
And, by the way, I think MA is the marriage equality state. Beat you by about 5 years!!!!
Steve from VT–Tell me that was sarcasm. Otherwise, what the hell’s wrong with you?
Woah. Slow down, folks. This story highlights EXACTLY why we have a criminal justice system that includes investigation: so that we prosecute the ACTUAL criminal under the PROPER circumstances and not just throw blame around to the most convenient source. At this juncture, a “person of interest” is just that: a person of interest. And claiming a hate-crime before all the evidence has been released is to totally jump the gun. Not every gay person who dies of unnatural causes is the victim of hatred or bias, and it is entirely possible that the perpetrator of this crime didn’t know he was gay. Does that make it any better? Certainly freaking NOT! It’s time to sit back and watch and wait for the truth to come out; making accusations or speculating about this doesn’t do any of us any good.
And yeah, I’m with the other commentator who pointed out that this guy was killed on an armed-forces base and wasn’t found until hours later. Sounds like there’s more to this story than a mere element of homosexuality.