Slain gay sailor buried in Houston

OCEANSIDE, Calif., July 11 (UPI) -- Friends and family of Navy Seaman August Provost say they want to know if he was killed at California's Camp Pendleton because he was gay.

"I believe with all my heart the truth will be revealed and any lies uncovered," Allie Harrison, a family friend, said Friday from the pulpit during Provost's funeral in Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.

Provost, 29, was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds June 30 at his guard post at Camp Pendleton. A sailor was being held as a "person of interest" in Provost's death but no charges had been filed as of late Friday.

Navy officials have said no evidence suggests the killing was a hate crime, though Provost had told relatives he was being harassed, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Saturday.

Provost, who talked of being gay on his Facebook and MySpace social networking sites, never reported the harassment because he would have been discharged under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, relatives told the Union-Tribune.

Friday night, about 100 people, many of them gay, gathered near the base to pay tribute to Provost, the Union-Tribune reported. "One is too many," read one sign at the vigil.