Saturday, July 25, 2009

Murder Charge Filed in Gay Sailor's Death

SAN DIEGO (july 24) - The U.S. Navy says a sailor has been charged in military court with murder and other offenses in the shooting death of a gay San Diego seaman.
Petty Officer Jonathan Campos of Lancaster, Calif., was charged Thursday in connection to last month's fatal shooting of Seaman August Provost of Houston.




Provost was shot multiple times as he stood guard at Camp Pendleton on June 30. The 29-year-old's family believes the shooting may have been a hate crime. The family says Provost complained of being harassed about his sexuality in the days before his death.
Navy officials have rejected those claims and say there is no record of Provost filing a harassment report.
They say Campos, a 32-year-old gas system technician, is being held at the brig and is cooperating with investigators.

1 comment:

Save Lake View YMCA Housing said...

I think the Navy and criminal investigators better establish exactly why they don't believe this offense was not specifically related to either an on-going relationship between the victim and offender, and/or why this particular victim wasn't specifically targeted.
The Navy initially stated that this was a random offense. How many random servicemembers are murdered while pulling guard duty?