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http://www.startribune.com/nation/147212255.htmlANCHORAGE, Alaska - Two Coast Guard members were fatally shot Thursday at a communications station on an island off Alaska in what officials said appeared to be a double homicide. They said they have yet to identify a suspect.
The victims were found at their work areas inside the Kodiak Island station early Thursday by another Coast Guard member, spokeswoman Sara Francis said.
While the roughly 60 enlisted personnel and civilians working at the station had been accounted for, Francis said, officials believe a third person was involved in the shooting.
The base, about 8 miles from the island's largest city of Kodiak, and an adjacent school were on lockdown. Officials called on the city's 6,300 or so residents to remain calm and vigilant.
Francis said added security was in place at the base and the school. She declined to provide specifics.
The station listens for radio transmissions from mariners and aircraft, Petty Officer Charly Hengen said. The staff is responsible for relaying distress calls to other Coast Guard stations and offices.
The station has "secure front doors," Hengen said, and requires staff and visitors to show identification. Francis said visitors and those not actually working at the station are usually provided escorts.
The Coast Guard said the victims' identities would be released after family members were notified.
The FBI said agents were headed to Kodiak from Anchorage, about 250 miles away.
Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, the commander of Coast Guard operations in Alaska, was in New London, Conn., for a conference at the Coast Guard Academy but left ahead of schedule.
Ostebo could not be reached for comment, according to academy spokesman David Santos.
The shooting occurred almost 11 years after another fatal shooting involving the Coast Guard on another Alaska island, St. Paul Island, which is about 660 miles west of the city of Kodiak.
A man killed a Coast Guard officer whom he believed was having an affair with his estranged wife.
Sad day for the CG.