The Marine who was fatally shot at Camp Lejeune Wednesday night has been identified as a North Carolina teen who wanted to follow in his Marine father’s footsteps.
Lance Cpl. Austin Schwenk, 19, was killed in his barracks room at the North Carolina military base, according to WCTI12.
Officials are investigating Schwenk’s death as a homicide and are holding a second marine in military police custody on suspicion of being involved with Schwenk’s death.
A Marine suspected of being involved with Schwenk’s death was arrested at approximately 10:15 p.m. following the shooting on Wednesday.
The suspect has yet to be identified.
Schwenk enlisted in the Marines in June 2022 and was attached to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment on base.
“I chose the Marines because I’ve grown up around a Marine. My father was a Marine, and he’s always given me a reason to look up to him,” Schwenk told the News Herald in May 2022.
“I chose the Marines for the simple fact that they will give me the discipline and leadership that I believe I will be able to use later in my life.”
Schwenk was born in Onslow County, where Camp Lejeune is based, but later graduated from high school in Ohio.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has launched an investigation into the shooting.
The shooting was initially reported as a mass shooting on Wednesday but was quickly confirmed by officials as an isolated incident.
“There was no mass shooting incident aboard Camp Lejeune, there was an isolated incident involving two Marines,” 2nd Marine Division spokeswoman 1st Lt. Olivia Giarrizzo wrote in an emailed statement to Marine Corps Times Thursday.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the Marine’s family and friends at this time,” the spokeswoman told the outlet.
The homicide occurred two days before the base conducted annual training known as Exercise Urgent Response, which “provides an opportunity for tenant commands to develop and exercise emergency security procedures,” according to a press release.
In 2021, a Marine assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, was shot and wounded in their barracks at Camp Lejeune.
NCIS later determined that the shooting was accidental.
Camp Lejeune is about 140 miles southeast of Raleigh and covers around 240 square miles of the North Carolina coast.
It is the home of the II Marine Expeditionary Force and is the branch’s largest base on the east coast.
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