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Questions remain about sailor found dead at NMCP

Posted at 6:48 PM, Apr 09, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-09 18:48:52-04

Still so many questions remain about what led up to Navy officials finding a sailor dead inside the barracks at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth yesterday morning.

The Navy isn't saying much about what exactly happened, but officials do tell us they responded to gunshots in the barracks, where they found a sailor dead when he didn't show up to work.

After putting the hospital on lockdown for 15 minutes, officials said they weren't looking for a shooter.

But one of the biggest questions may be: Was anyone in the barracks allowed to have a weapon?

According to Navy documents, no one is allowed to have a personal weapon in bachelor quarter barracks, cars, or at work.

Navy officials tell NewsChannel 3 the commanding officer hasn't authorized anyone living in the barracks at Portsmouth Naval Hospital to have a personal weapon.

NewsChannel 3 asked the Navy today to confirm that the policy was broken yesterday, but officials wouldn't say and added that they're still investigating.

Yesterday's shooting is a reminder of the recent violence at other military installations, and if those shooters were allowed to have a weapon.

Most recently at Fort Hood, Ivan Lopez wasn't registered to bring his personal weapon on base, but Army officials say he did, and before killing himself, he killed three others, and injured 16 more.

And here locally at Naval Station Norfolk, when officials tell NewsChannel 3 civilian Jeffrey Savage didn't have a weapon when he got to pier one, but as he tried getting onto the USS Mahan, he grabbed a weapon from a watch guard then shot Master at Arms Mark Mayo to death.