Virginia

Soldier Who Committed Suicide at Fort Lee From Yonkers

Officials identified the soldier who killed herself at Fort Lee Army base Monday as 33-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Paula M. Walker, of Yonkers, N.Y.

Walker locked herself inside a third floor office, throwing things around before putting the weapon to her head, said Maj. Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, a commanding general at Fort Lee.

She was flown to an area hospital where she died a few hours later. The shooting prompted a temporary lockdown at the base.

Walker had been in the Army for 14 years; she had been at Fort Lee for three years. She also spent 15 months in Iraq in 2007, officials said.

The last shooting on a military installation was reported in April, when an Iraq War veteran killed three people and injured 16 others at Fort Hood, Texas, before shooting himself. The shooter was identified was Ivan A. Lopez, 34.

Just weeks before the shooting at Fort Hood, a sailor was fatally shot at Naval Station Norfolk. Security forces on the base killed the male suspect shortly after aboard the guided-missile destroyer.

Last year, 12 people died when a government contractor began shooting inside the Navy Yard complex in Washington, D.C. Another four were injured. The gunman, a former Navy reservist identified as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, was killed by officers.

Fort Lee is an Army post and headquarters of the U.S. Army's Combined Arms Support Command and a number of other defense training institutions. The daily population of Fort Lee averages about 34,000, including members of the military, their families and civilian contractors, according to the base’s Web site. It is the Army’s third largest training site, with as many as 70,000 troops spending time in its classrooms each year.

The base has grown enormously over the last decade as a result of base closings and its designation as a training base for military supply, maintenance, munitions and more, its Web site says.

Fort Lee is located about 25 miles south of Richmond, Virginia.

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