Florida Shooting Updates: Gunman Said to Have Self-Radicalized
Pensacola FL December 7 2019
The Saudi man who shot and killed three people on a naval base in Florida on Friday did not have any ties to international terrorist groups and appears to have been self-radicalized, according to an initial assessment from American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
The gunman, identified as Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was killed by a sheriff’s deputy who responded to the attack. Lieutenant Alshamrani was training to become a pilot and initially entered the United States in 2018, according to a senior American official who has been briefed on the investigation’s initial stages. But at some point Lieutenant Alshamrani returned to Saudi Arabia and then re-entered the United States in February 2019, the official said.
The lieutenant did not report for his training program at the naval air station in Pensacola until about two days before the shooting, the official said.
It was unclear what Lieutenant Alshamrani was doing in the United States between February and when he reported for training, but he was apparently living in the Pensacola area for much of that period, the official said.
Six other Saudi nationals were detained for questioning near the scene of the shooting, which took place over two floors in a classroom on the base. Three of the Saudis who were detained had been seen filming the entire incident, according to another person briefed on the investigation.
It was not known whether the six Saudis detained were students in the classroom building, and there was no immediate indication that those filming the incident were connected to the gunman, the person said.
Family members identified one of the victims.
On Facebook, family members identified Joshua Kaleb Watson as one of the victims. Adam Watson wrote in a post that his youngest brother “saved countless lives today with his own.”
“After being shot multiple times he made it outside and told the first response team where the shooter was and those details were invaluable,” he wrote. “He died a hero and we are beyond proud but there is a hole in our hearts that can never be filled.”
Mr. Watson’s father, Benjamin Watson, told The Pensacola News Journal that his 23-year-old son was shot five times. A rifle team captain, he had reported to the base two weeks earlier for flight training, his father told the newspaper.
The authorities have not officially released the victims’ names. Eight people were injured in the attack. Sheriff Morgan said two of the eight were deputies responding to the scene.
One was shot in the arm and one in the knee, but both are expected to recover and one was released from the hospital on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office said.
Captain Kinsella said the victims were “part of the Navy family.”
“They’re part of us, and our heart goes out to those of you who may be affected by this tragedy,” he said.
The authorities are still investigating a motive.
Investigators were trying to determine what motivated the gunman.
Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, and Representative Matt Gaetz, a Republican whose district includes Pensacola, both described the shooting as an act of terrorism. But federal law enforcement officials said it was too early to establish the gunman’s motive.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity, cited a Twitter account with a name matching the gunman that had posted a “will” calling the United States a “nation of evil” and criticizing its support for Israel.
SITE said the account had also quoted Osama bin Laden, the former Qaeda leader, and was critical of United States foreign policy.
“I’m not against you for just being American,” the posts said. “I don’t hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only against Muslims but also humanity.”
The account could not be independently verified, and law enforcement officials did not confirm that it was connected to the gunman.
The gunman was a member of the Saudi Air Force.
The lieutenant was a trainee with the Saudi Air Force. Saudi pilots have trained at the Pensacola base since 1995.
The gunman used a locally purchased Glock 45 9-millimeter handgun with an extended magazine and had four to six other magazines in his possession, according to one of the people briefed on the investigation.
Capt. Timothy F. Kinsella Jr., the base’s commanding officer, said that about 200 international students were training at the base. They come from countries like Italy and Norway, in addition to Saudi Arabia, and are trained to fly helicopters or F-15s, according to a Navy pilot familiar with the program. Americans and Saudis go through initial training together before embarking on separate programs.
Some officials pointed to the military’s vetting process.
Mr. Scott and Mr. Gaetz blamed the shooting, in part, on what they called insufficient federal standards for the vetting of foreign military trainees. The senator said he wanted a “full review” of military programs that train foreign nationals in the United States.
“Whether this individual was motivated by radical Islam or was simply mentally unstable, this was an act of terrorism,” Mr. Scott said in a statement on Friday. “There is no reason we should be providing state-of-the-art military training to people who wish us harm.”
King Salman of Saudi Arabia called President Trump to offer his condolences and to condemn the actions of the gunman, who he said did not represent the Saudi people, according to Mr. Trump.
“The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter.
The shooting happened at dawn.
The shooting happened early on Friday morning across two floors of a classroom building at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, where foreign military trainees have studied for decades.
Law enforcement officials said they began receiving emergency calls at about 6:50 a.m., and the base was put on lockdown. It was the second shooting at a Navy base this week.
“Walking through the crime scene was like being on the set of a movie,” Sheriff Morgan said on Friday.
