Sailor gunned down on sentry duty, Navy says
Jul 3rd, 2009 by Bilal Ali
– A sailor found dead earlier this week at California’s Camp Pendleton was shot while standing sentry, and a fire was set in an attempt to cover up evidence, the U.S. Navy said
The death of Seaman August Provost of Houston, Texas, is being investigated as a homicide, Capt. Matt Brown told reporters on Thursday. A sailor is in custody in the case, Brown said.
Although at least one of Provost’s relatives said she believes he was killed because of his sexual orientation and his race, Brown said there was no indication the killing was a hate crime. A U.S. congressman also said on Friday there are indications Provost may have been killed because of his sexual orientation.
Provost was killed while he was standing guard as a sentry for the Assault Craft Unit 5 compound at Camp Pendleton, Brown said. He had begun the shift at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, and his body was discovered by his replacement around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“Preliminarily, it appears that Seaman Provost suffered gunshot wounds and it appears that someone attempted to destroy evidence by lighting a fire at Seaman Provost’s assigned place of duty,” Brown said.
Provost’s aunt, Rose Roy, of Beaumont, Texas, said by telephone on Friday that her nephew had told her he was being harassed because of his sexual orientation and because he was African-American. She described him as bisexual.
“He mentioned it to me and a couple other family members,” she said of the harassment, and said he had first told her about it sometime last year.