NCIS Charges Sailor with Murder Following Shipmate Shooting Aboard Future Carrier Kennedy
Source: NCIS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Aviation Boatswain's Mate Jayjrion Rodriguez has been charged with murder and manslaughter by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) following the June 6 shooting death of Boatswain's Mate Seaman Jesse Braswell aboard the Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) John F. Kennedy in Newport News, Virginia. The two sailors were both assigned to the ship's in-port security team when Rodriguez allegedly shot Braswell in the head with a service pistol. NCIS announced the formal charges on August 19, nearly two and a half months after Braswell's death.
ANALYSIS
Rodriguez was held in pretrial confinement until June 11 before being released pending investigation. NCIS spent the intervening weeks building its case before forwarding formal charges on August 19. Rodriguez faces murder while engaging in an act inherently dangerous to another, involuntary manslaughter, three specifications of simple assault with a loaded firearm, and three specifications of reckless endangerment. The latter two categories stem from prior incidents in which Rodriguez allegedly pointed his service pistol at other sailors aboard the ship before the June 6 killing, a pattern that predated the fatal shooting by an undisclosed period.
Braswell had reported to the Kennedy on March 13, 2025, after completing recruit training and surface warfare engineering school at Great Lakes, Illinois. He was advanced to Boatswain's Mate Seaman on April 30, 2026, and had been aboard for roughly fifteen months at the time of his death. The Kennedy has been completing sea trials and final outfitting at Newport News, where it is being built by Huntington Ingalls Industries ahead of a planned delivery to the Navy in early 2027. The ship has drawn significant public and congressional attention as the Navy's newest carrier.
The charge sheet carries implications beyond this individual case. Three documented prior incidents of Rodriguez pointing a loaded service weapon at fellow sailors occurred before the fatal shooting, and yet he remained on armed security duty. Whether the command documented those incidents and chose not to act, or whether they were not formally reported at all, is a question NCIS and any subsequent court-martial will almost certainly examine. Pre-commissioning units operate in a stage of organizational development where formal oversight structures, legal staff, and command climate norms are still being established. A court-martial date has not been announced as of August 19.
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