Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Who killed Three at Florida Navy Air Base?


Sat 07 Dec 2019 | 11:43 AM
Yassmine Elsayed

Four people, including the shooter, died on Friday at the Pensacola, Florida Naval Air Station by hands of a Saudi national. This marked the second deadly shooting at a US military facility in less than a week.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman condemned the shooting and expressed "his sorrow and grief," the Saudi embassy in Washington said in a statement after a call with US President Donald Trump on Friday.

Trump said that King Salman had called him to express his condolences.

The Saudi statement read that "the perpetrator of this heinous crime does not represent the Saudi people, who count the American people as friends and allies."

Salman "directed Saudi security services to cooperate with the relevant American agencies to uncover information that will help determine the cause of this horrific attack."

The shooting came just two days after a 22-year-old active duty sailor opened fired on three civilian employees at the naval shipyard at Pearl Habor in Hawaii. Two of his victims succumbed to their injuries, and the attacker fatally shot himself before police could intervene.

The base in Florida employs about 16,000 people, including 7,400 civilian personnel. Members of the military are usually restricted from carrying deadly weapons around military installations unless their daily duties require it.

The gunman was part of the Saudi Air Force and apparently in the United States in an official capacity. He started his training in August 2017 as part of a three-year program. He was taking classes in basic aviation, initial pilot training and English, according to a spokesperson for the assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

Officials are looking into whether the shooting was terror-related as a possible motive, but it's still early in the investigation. Three people were killed in the shooting and at least eight others were injured and taken to a hospital, authorities said.