Here is the story as it appears in the news. Please place guesses as to what actually took place in the comments and reasons as to why you guess what you do.
From All Voices.com
British submarine shooting kills a sailor, critically injures another
Apr 08, 2011
Sailors from HMS Astute
According to sources, a shooting in Southampton on Friday killed a sailor on board a British submarine and injured another. The injured sailor was critically wounded in the British submarine shooting. The circumstances that led to the British submarine shooting are not clear and are still being investigated. The British submarine shooting took place around noon on Friday on the HMS Astute, which is one of the UK’s newest fleet of submarines. The submarine is fully nuclear-powered, but not nuclear-armed and is at dock in Southampton.
The authorities stated that the British submarine shooting happened at a changeover between the four-hour guard shifts. These shifts are generally operated when a boat is in port. The Royal Navy stated, “Two Royal Navy personnel have been involved in a firearms incident at Southampton docks where HMS Astute is alongside. Sadly, one has now died as a result of his injuries.” The Royal Navy further said that the British submarine shooting had nothing to do with issues that are “terrorist related” and there is no threat to the wider public after the British submarine shooting.
A Royal Navy serviceman has been reportedly arrested by the Hampshire Constabulary on suspicion of murder and is now in custody. The Navy official who got killed in the British submarine shooting was an officer. According to news sources, the suspect got into an “argument then just went crazy and began shooting people”. Eye witnesses report that there were more than two people who got hurt in the British submarine shooting.
The submarine on which the shooting took place is a 75000-ton vessel and is one of its kind; a new class of British nuclear submarines. This vessel is considered to be the largest and most powerful attack submarines built for the Royal Navy. The British submarine is worth $16.4 billion and has a crew of 98. The British submarine had been away from its base in Faslane, Scotland for an informal five-day visit.
My best guesses are that a martinet officer was shot by someone he had been abusing. Either that or someone slipped through the physic testing and went off at the idea that they had to obey orders.
This is typical of most new articles, and one reason why people laugh or ignore news in frustruation
1. Most sailors whether on subs or ships do not carry guns
2. Ship alongside may be coastguard who do carry guns
3. Why mention terrorism when nothing else is mentioned
4. Why aren’t names mentioned?
5. The officer killed may or may not be the relevant target
6. Perhaps no one was the target and it was just a f – ing psychotic
7. It could have been a drug/money/human cargo/weapons smuggling/ etc transfer gone wrong (lots of that goes on even within the military)
8. The names and race of the participants is always relevant, especially today
9. The information regarding the small craft alongside is extremely relevant, for instance, is it coast guard, or registered in another country
There is too little concrete information here, as with pretty much all internal MoD investigations that are leaked to the press.
With so many “ifs”, you can bet that there is much more than meets the eye here. The Brits like to keep things close to their chests, as it were and for a long long time. My wife has relatives who were part of the Bletchley (SP?) Park group that broke the Enigma code during WWII and they still aren’t talking!
We probably won’t hear what really happened unless there is a leak.
The Brits are much better then the US at keeping secrets, so it will be years to decades before the full facts come out.