3 Dead In Base Shooting, Suicide Airman Reportedly Kills Bar Pal, Officer, Turns Gun On Himself

An Air Force airman fatally shot two fellow servicemen Saturday and then committed suicide at this desert base, authorities said.

Senior Airman DeVaughn L. Brown, 23, of Lawton, Okla., killed a senior airman and a military police officer, then fled to his dormitory and apparently shot himself to death. Brown, stationed at the base for 3-1/2 years, was found shortly before 7 a.m.

Senior Airman Darrick F. Moore, 27, was found shot to death at the landfill on this remote desert base 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Moore, who was married and from Wahiawa, Hawaii, had been stationed at Edwards for 3-1/2 years, authorities said.

Brown and Moore were last seen together at Stripes, a bar on base, late Friday, according to Col. Ed DeIulio.

It was unclear whether they were drinking or if they had argued, DeIulio said.

Moore’s widow, Senior Airman Adriana Moore said her husband and Brown had argued two weeks ago after Moore talked a woman out of going on a date with Brown.

Late Friday, the two met at the bar, then went outside to discuss their differences. Moore later left to arm himself, his wife said. “That is when I got suspicious,” she said.

Base officials said Brown shot Moore sometime before 2 a.m., then drove off in his car.

A short time later, he gunned down Tech. Sgt. Robert Butler after the veteran security officer stopped the car, said George Fox, a spokesman for the base 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Butler, 34, was with the 95th Security Forces Squadron and was a 13-year Air Force veteran.

“He was a good man, a regular churchgoer,” Butler’s father, Joseph Butler, said in a choked voice during a telephone interview from Philadelphia.

“From what I was told so far, my son had made a stop for a DUI (drunken driving) investigation at two in the morning, and this guy shot him in the face and killed him.”