SAN DIEGO (AP) - The chairman the House Veterans Affairs Committee is calling for a Defense Department and Marine Corps probe to see if the killing of a gay sailor at Camp Pendleton was a hate crime.

Democratic Rep. Bob Filner of San Diego said Thursday he wants an investigation into the death of 29-year-old Seaman August Provost of Houston, who was found slain in a guard shack Tuesday.

Filner's call for an investigation comes after leaders in the gay community asked him to intervene.

Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairman of the San Diego Human Relations Commission, says Provost's family told her that personnel on the base had been harassing the sailor.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has taken a "person of interest" into custody but has not filed any charges.