The Portsmouth Police Department found three young navy sailors dead outside a convenience store near a military hospital in Virginia, the Navy Times reported.
The incident took place just before 11:30 p.m. local time on May 4 outside a 7-Eleven, The Virginian Pilot reported.
Police spokeswoman Sgt. Misty Holley said that officers found the suspected gunman, 22-year-old Donavon Mariano Terron Moora, in a car with “a self-inflicted injury to his upper torso.”
The car was parked at the Dollar General’s parking lot located right next to the 7-Eleven where the incident happened.
Moora was a hospitalman apprentice hailing from Queens, New York who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
Holley told the Navy Times what they found when the officers arrived.
“When officers arrived, they found two adult females suffering from injuries to their torsos,” Holley said.
The paramedics arrived shortly after the officers did and pronounced both female victims dead at the scene.
The female victims were identified as 23-year-old Meaghan Burns and 19-year-old Shianne Soles.
All three people were all active-duty Navy corpsman, according to The New York Post.
Three Navy members killed in apparent double murder-suicide https://t.co/yq5CHfx6Xo pic.twitter.com/sotn7SE4gU
— New York Post (@nypost) May 8, 2019
Charles Gulick, a spokesman for the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, gave his condolences and information regarding those who were affected by the incident.
“Mental health professionals and chaplains are at each location to assist anyone dealing with the grief and difficult nature of this tragedy,” Gulick told Navy Times.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and shipmates during this difficult time.”
Officials have reported this as an “isolated” incident, Navy Times reported.
“The motive and circumstances are still under investigation,” Holley said. “There is no immediate or continued threat to the community.”
Died Helping a Friend
Burns’s obituary states that she died while trying to help a friend.
The 23-year-old enlisted into the U.S. Navy in 2015, served as a Hospital Corpsman in Naples, Italy, and then moved to the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Burns aspired to work in the healthcare sector after her enlistment ended.
Her parents and younger sister reside in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, while her extended family lives in New York state.
The obituary ended with a few words to express who Burns was as a person.
“She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She carried the weight of the universe on her shoulders and turned it to angel wings”
‘Bright Light’ Who Touched Many
Soles’s family gave a written statement that described Burns as someone who had a passion to make the world better and be part of something bigger, KREM 2 reported.
That passion was what led her to enlist as a Navy Corpsman.
“She had a passion to be a part of something bigger.”
Shianne Soles’ family just sent us a statement as they grieve the loss of their daughter, who was killed in a suspected murder-suicide this weekend in Virginia. You’ll hear from her childhood friend on @kxly4news tonight. pic.twitter.com/KTmYo4ljII
— Taylor Graham (@TaylorKXLY) May 7, 2019
She was a “bright light that would flood the room wherever she went” and “never turned down anyone that needed help, day or night.”
“Her smile was contagious and her laughter was infectious,” her family wrote.
The family wrote saying that the 19-year-old was a driven and focused individual who excelled in many areas including “dance to cheer, track and work, school and Navy.”
“There are no words that can describe the pain we feel or the pain that we see within our support group around us,” Soles’s family wrote. “The words we have received have stretched far and wide and we cannot thank everyone enough. Thank you for respecting our need for privacy during this time of mourning.”
