A 21-year-old Marine, a native Central Oregonian and graduate of Bend's Mountain View High, has been killed by an improvised explosive device in Iraq, grieving family friends confirmed Monday.

Lance Cpl. Randy Lee Newman

Jerry and Ramona Newman got the fateful visit at their Bend home around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, telling them of the death of their son, Lance Cpl. Randy Lee Newman, family friend Ceil Wilson said.

While many details remain to be filled in, the family has been told Newman was riding in a light armored vehicle around 1 a.m. Sunday, Baghdad time, when an improvised explosive device hit the vehicle just outside of Iraq's capital, Wilson said.

Newman, who was deployed to Iraq in the spring, was a member of Company D, the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, based in Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif.

"He was like my son," Wilson said. "My son's in Afghanistan. This is his best friend."

Newman, born at St. Charles Medical Center-Bend, moved to Bend from La Pine in the fall of 2000 with his parents and two younger brothers, Dan, who graduated from Mountain View last year, and Ken, who is about 8 years old, Wilson said.

Newman was on the Cougars' wrestling team and was in the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

"Randy was involved in sports at all levels, baseball and basketball," and was on the varsity wrestling team, Wilson said.

Newman was in the Marines within a year of graduation, just as he'd wanted, the family friend said.

"The family's very pro what Randy wants," he said. "We're not negative - no bitterness. There's extreme sadness, of course. It's a solid family, been around here for a long time and well-established in the community."

It's the second death of a Central Oregonian in the Iraq war this summer, following the June abduction and killing of Army Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Madras.