MARION - The patient at the VA Medical Center in Marion who shot himself in the head outside the hospital Thursday afternoon has died.

The man's identity has yet to be released by officials at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale where the patient was transferred.

But hospital spokeswoman Rosslind Rice did confirm this morning that the patient had died Thursday night and referred all additional inquiries to Jackson County Coroner Dr. Thomas Kupferer. Kupferer has not yet returned calls from The Southern.

VA communications director Peggy Willoughby said Friday that the agency was still in the process of contacting some family members and that campus police were continuing to investigate the incident. She said she was not at liberty to reveal the victim's name.

The shooting victim was a patient at the VA. Willoughby was unable to confirm whether he was a mental patient and part-time employee at the hospital.

The victim, who is believed to be in his mid-to-late thirties, was treated on site immediately after the shooting by medical personnel in the emergency room. They stabilized the patient before he was transferred to Carbondale.