THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, December 6, 1995            TAG: 9512060629
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 
DATELINE: HAMPTON                            LENGTH: Short :   27 lines

FATAL SHOOTING OF SAILOR WAS ACCIDENT, POLICE BELIEVE

Police said Tuesday they believe a sailor assigned to the destroyer Thorn was accidentally shot to death on Monday when a 9mm handgun discharged while a fellow sailor was loading it.

Korey A. Grant, 25, was shot once in the back at a Hampton apartment complex in the 400 block of Michigan Drive at about 11:20 a.m. He was pronounced dead at 12:10 p.m. at Sentara Hampton General Hospital.

Donnie Moore, spokesman for the Hampton Police Department, said the two sailors were in an upstairs hallway when the shooting occurred. A third sailor assigned to the Thorn was in a downstairs room of the apartment at the time.

After an autopsy, police will present their findings to the Hampton commonwealth's attorney's office, Moore said.

``All preliminary reports are that it was accidental,'' Moore said.

The Thorn is being overhauled at Newport News Shipbuilding. The ship was based in Charleston, S.C., before being moved to Norfolk in 1994.

KEYWORDS: SHOOTING FATALITY by CNB