UPDATE: Thursday night’s shooting that left three Marines dead at Marine Corps Base Quantico, including the shooter, happened at the officer candidate school’s Taylor Hall barracks, and that there was no barricade or standoff as some reports have said, base commander Col. David W. Maxwell said Friday morning.
By Alison Harding and Shannon Travis
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Marine shot and killed two of his fellow service members at a Virginia base on Thursday night and then killed himself, base spokesmen said
The incident took place at Marine Corps Base Quantico. The shooter, a staff member at the officer candidate school, gunned down a man and a woman, the spokesmen said. All are Marines.
The incident shocked the military community. Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a Twitter message that he was “saddened to hear of loss of life” at Quantico.
The notification of a shooting came about 11 p.m. when authorities found one dead victim, according to Agustin Solivan, a Marine Corps spokesman.
Using a public address system, police announced a lockdown at Marine Corps Base Quantico and surrounded the building where the suspect was barricaded. They ordered everyone to stay in their homes, doors locked.
Authorities from the base and Prince William County, Virginia, surrounded the shooter, who was in barracks not far from where the first shooting occurred.
Law enforcement officials entered the room two hours later and discovered the shooter dead of a self-inflicted wound. The female victim was in the room with him, fatally shot.
The lockdown ended early Friday, a few hours after it started,.
It was unclear whether the three knew each other, Solivan said, and the motive of the shooting is unknown.
Pentagon spokesman George Little issued a statement early Friday on the deadly shooting at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, saying he “believes that the legendary strength of the United States Marine Corps will ensure that they are forever remembered.” “This tragedy, as well as the tragedy in Nevada earlier this week, took the lives of Marines who volunteered to serve their nation,” the statement said. Little was referring to the seven Marines killed Monday night during a training exercise at Hawthorne Army Depot in western Nevada.
CNN’s Jake Carpenter contributed to this report
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