LONGMONT, CO — Lance Cpl. Riley Schultz, a 19-year-old Marine from Longmont, was found near his guard post in Camp Pendleton, San Diego, on March 15 with an apparent gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes later. The Marine Corps is not releasing additional details about the death while an investigation, to be conducted by the U.S. Navy Criminal Investigative Services, is ongoing.
According to media reports, both of Schultz’s grandfathers served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and he wanted to become a Marine from a young age. He joined the Marine Corps in 2017 at age 17, shortly before his graduation from Roosevelt High School in Johnstown.
“He just loved the whole idea of being a Marine,” his mother, Misty Schultz-McCoy, told the Longmont Times-Call. “That was his only plan for after high school. I was worried, but that’s what he wanted to do. He was so dedicated to it. It never occurred to me that he could die before he left for deployment.”
“He absolutely loved it,” his grandmother, Kathleen Schultz, told the Times-Call. “When he was here just after Christmas, that is all he could talk about. He wanted to serve his country and help people.”
Schultz-McCoy recounted the information she was given by Marine Corps representatives when they informed her of her son’s death. “They found him near some vehicles where he wasn’t supposed to be,” she told the Orange County Register. “They said he was dead and had been shot in the head.”
“We begged her (one of two Marines who broke the news) to ‘unofficially’ tell us what they thought,” Schultz-McCoy said. “She said, they thought it was suicide. The next day they acted differently and said there would be an official memorial because they did not believe he committed suicide.”
“He’s my hero,” his older brother, Lincoln Schwartz, 23, told the Register. “He had grown so much when he made up his mind to join. I was really proud of him.”
Schultz’s body will be flown this week to Colorado for services scheduled at Loveland’s Immanuel Lutheran Church for April 6. A Camp Pendleton memorial service is planned for April 3.
Schultz-McCoy has created a scholarship fund in her son’s name on Facebook, the details of which will be announced later Wednesday.
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