Son Kills Mother, Self in Hall Near Shultz’s Office

A young man with a rifle shot his mother to death today, then killed himself in a supposedly secure area of the State Department, down the hall from Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s office, police said.

Police identified the dead as Carol Doster, 44, of Alexandria, Va., a secretary at the department, and her son, Edward Doster, 20.

Witnesses on the seventh floor said the young man, dressed in Army fatigue pants and a yellow T-shirt and carrying a rifle, entered the offices of the staff of State Department Counselor Edwin Derwinski, a former Illinois Republican congressman. “There were screams, and we called the police,” one State Department employee said.

Alfonso Gibson, deputy chief of police criminal investigation division, said the woman worked in Derwinski’s office.

‘Breakdown Somewhere’

He declined comment on what type of weapon was involved. Asked whether the shooting points up a security lapse at the State Department, Gibson said that will be up to the department to determine, but added, “A gun got in there so apparently there was a breakdown somewhere.”

State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb said that “this was not a terrorist incident” and that there was never a threat to Shultz or any senior officials. He said Shultz was in his office, about 100 feet down the hall, at the time of the shooting. He said Derwinski has broken off a trip to Tokyo to return home.

The office where the shooting took place is down the corridor from the glass-walled entrance to the executive suite where the top officials of the department, including the secretary of state, have their offices.

There is a guard in the outer reception area of the executive suite.

Metal Detectors

One State Department employee, who said he called the police when he heard screams, said, “The question is, how did somebody get in here with a rifle?”

The department is heavily guarded, and visitors must go through a metal detector at all the main entrances. Employees with State Department passes are not searched or required to go through the metal detectors.