The U.S. Marine involved in the July 7 shooting incident at Twentynine Palms Marine base in California has died from his self-inflicted injuries.
The Marine Corps later identified the Marine as 23-year-old Lance Cpl. Casey Hayden from New York. Hayden enlisted in the Corps in 2014 and was promoted to lance corporal in February of this year.
“We can confirm the individual who sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., on July 7, 2020, has passed away. We are saddened by this loss of one of our brothers, a Marine with 7th Marine Regiment. We ask for discretion for his family, friends and fellow Marines at this time. The ongoing investigation continues,” says a statement from 1st Marine Division.
Brig. Gen. Roger Turner, the base commander at Twentynine Palms, called the incident a “suicide” in a post on the base’s Facebook page.
“I was extremely proud of the response from our Military Police, Fire and Rescue, and Mercy Air,” Turner said in the post. “They did their very best.”
He added that the incident “uncovered some gaps in our mass notification processes on base,” that they will work to rectify.
Shots were reported around 6:30 a.m. at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, 125 miles east of Los Angeles.
Military police cordoned off the area and were communicating with the person when the individual sustained the gunshot wound about two hours later. No one else was injured.
A shelter-in-place order was lifted by mid-morning and the gates to the base reopened.
About 8,500 people live on the sprawling base that covers 600,000 acres.
It was not immediately clear if the person was a Marine, and the military did not identify the person or their gender. The military is investigating the incident.
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