PORTSMOUTH, Va. – An apparent Saturday night double murder and suicide took the lives of three young sailors outside a convenience store near the military hospital here.
Portsmouth Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Misty Holley told Navy Times that officers received an emergency call at 11:22 p.m. Saturday requesting law enforcement and medical help at the 7-11 convenience store located on the corner of Effingham and Lincoln streets.
“When officers arrived, they found two adult females suffering from injuries to their torsos,” Holley said.
Paramedics pulled up shortly after the police and found the victims gunned down in the parking lot between the store and its gas pumps. They pronounced both women dead at the scene, Holley added.
Officials identified the victims as Hospitalman Shianne Soles, 19 of Veradale, Washington, and Hospitalman Meaghan “Meggy” Burns, 23 of South Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Both were assigned to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, according to Charles Gulick, a spokesman for the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Falls Church, Virginia.
Burns enlisted in the Navy on Sept. 15, 2015. Soles was new to the service, joining on July 18.
Officers found the suspected gunman — Hospitalman Apprentice Donavon Mariano Terron Moora, 22, from the South Ozone Park section of Queens, New York — in a car outside a Dollar General Store located next door.
Holley told Navy Times he had suffered “a self-inflicted injury to his upper torso” and also was declared dead at the scene by paramedics.
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Moora enlisted on Nov. 29, 2017, and was assigned to Field Medical Training Battalion East in North Carolina’s Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, according to Gulick.
"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.”
Saying that they continue to probe what they call an “isolated” incident, police officials have declined to release more details in the case.
“The motive and circumstances are still under investigation,” Holley said. “There is no immediate or continued threat to the community.”
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
