SAN DIEGO — A 32-year-old sailor has been charged with murder in the shooting of a fellow seaman standing guard at Camp Pendleton.
The Navy said there was no indication of a hate crime in the case. The victim, Seaman August Provost of Houston, was gay.
Officials said Provost, 29, was standing guard when Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Campos of Lancaster allegedly attempted to enter the base to commit violence. He was facing discipline for a drunken driving arrest off base.
Campos now faces charges including arson, burglary of a San Diego home, stealing military property, drug possession and attempting to hire a civilian to kill a sailor.
Navy officials said that although Provost and Campos were in the same command at Camp Pendleton, there was no indication that they knew each other or that Campos had targeted Provost.
Provost was found shot to death about 3 a.m. June 30 in a sentry station outside the Navy’s landing-craft training facility on the western edge of the sprawling base. A fire had been started at the station in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.
Leaders of San Diego’s gay community called on the military to investigate whether the killing was a hate crime based on Provost’s sexual orientation.
Provost was “out” to the gay community and his social-media sites, but at work he adhered to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Immediately after the killing, the Navy announced that a sailor was being held in the brig as a “person of interest.” That sailor was released and a second “person of interest” was jailed.
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