Dear Commons Community,

The F.B.I. is investigating the motive behind a shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida that killed three people and injured eight others on Friday.  The authorities said the gunman, identified as Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani,  was a member of the Saudi Air Force and was killed by a sheriff’s deputy who responded to the attack. Alshamrani initially entered the United States in 2017, when his training with the United States military began, Pentagon officials said. After his initial arrival in the country, he attended language school at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, the officials said, and took classes in English and aviation.

Suspicion about terrorism (see Note below)  is being considered because Alshamrani and six other Saudis had watched videos of mass shootings at a dinner party the night before the attack.   The 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 also been seen filming the entire incident, according to another person briefed on the investigation.  Lastly, the gunman and three other Saudi military trainees visited New York City recently, including several museums and Rockefeller Center, according to the person. Investigators are seeking to determine whether the trip was a tourist excursion during the Thanksgiving holiday week in New York, or whether the Saudi trainees had other motives or met with other people there.

This  story  will be closely watched over the next several days and weeks.

Tony

NOTE:  After the original posting was made above, the FBI announced that it was working under the presumption that the fatal shooting at the Pensacola naval base carried out by Mohammed Saeed Alshamranif was an act of terrorism.

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