PENSACOLA, Fla. -- A Saudi Arabian military pilot training in the United States opened fire with a handgun Friday morning at Naval Air Station Pensacola, leaving three people dead and several others wounded before Florida sheriff's deputies shot and killed him. It was the second deadly shooting at a U.S. naval base this week.
U.S. and Saudi government officials Friday evening identified the gunman as Ahmed Mohammed al Shamrani. He was training in the U.S. in accordance with a U.S. Air Force Foreign Military Sales training course funded by Saudi Arabia, according to Pentagon spokesman Chris Garver. Al Shamrani's program started in August of 2017 and was scheduled to conclude in August next year and included English language training, basic aviation, and initial pilot training.
As FBI officials leading the investigation scrutinize potential social media accounts of the shooter, FBI spokeswoman Amanda Videll said the bureau has not established a motive and is trying to determine whether the shooting is terrorism.
"We have not at this hour determined one way or the other whether it is terrorism or not," Videll said.
President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Saudi King Salman had called him "to express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies."
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"The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people," Trump tweeted.
Florida U.S. Sen. Rick Scott issued a scathing statement calling the shooting an act of terrorism "whether this individual was motivated by radical Islam or was simply mentally unstable."
Scott added that it was "clear that we need to take steps to ensure that any and all foreign nationals are scrutinized and vetted extensively before being embedded with our American men and women in uniform."
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement Friday that he was "considering several steps to ensure the security of our military installations and the safety of our service members and their families." He did not elaborate.
Reports of a shooting inside an air station classroom came in at 6:51 a.m., drawing a major law enforcement response in the Florida Panhandle city. The base was placed on lockdown, the Navy said, with its gates secured. After about an hour, the sheriff's office announced that the shooter was dead.
The air station's commanding officer, Capt. Timothy Kinsella, declined to specify which classroom had been targeted, saying at a news conference Friday that he did not want to cause alarm to families of air station employees who were still being notified. Kinsella noted that weapons are not authorized on base except for security forces.
It remained unclear Friday evening whether the three people killed in the attack were service members or civilians, said Lt. Cmdr. Megan Isaac, a Navy spokeswoman. Several people were taken to hospitals, including two Escambia County sheriff's deputies who are expected to survive. Naval Air Station Pensacola said in a statement Friday afternoon that it was withholding the names of the victims until 24 hours after the next-of-kin were notified.
'LIVES WERE SAVED'
A core message from officials throughout the day focused on the quick response and heroism by law enforcement agencies.
"I can tell you lives were saved because of the response of people both in uniform with the Navy and in uniform with Escambia County sheriff's office," Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said. "In one of the darkest days, I think, in the base's history, you still saw some of that bravery and grit come out."
The incident shook a community whose identity is deeply entwined with the base, with many residents either employed there or tied to the industry that sprawls alongside Pensacola Bay. The number of personnel assigned at the base is almost half the population of the city itself.
DeSantis said the state's emergency management agency had deployed an official to coordinate mental health resources for those affected by the shooting. He said he had talked to Trump about the need for the Saudi Arabian government to help victims, adding that "they're going to owe a debt here."
"I think there's obviously going to be a lot of questions about this individual being a foreign national being a part of the Saudi air force and then to be here training on our soil," he said.
Saudi officials, including the foreign minister and a former ambassador to the United States, posted messages of condolence on Twitter, while a statement from the Saudi Embassy said King Salman pledged the Saudi government's cooperation into the investigation.
"[The king] stressed the Kingdom's full support to the United States, as His Majesty 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 statement read.
In Pensacola, officials called Friday a tragic day for the community, underscoring the close relationship between the city and the air station.
"For 200 years, they have been a part of the city of Pensacola. We're a military town," Mayor Grover Robinson said during a news conference. "Our hearts and prayers are connected to all those who serve us every day. Certainly the expectation that this would happen here at home was unexpected."
Naval Air Station Pensacola, which hosts 16,000 military personnel and more than 7,000 civilians, is known as the "cradle of naval aviation." It's home to the Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron and is the first stop for training to become naval pilots or flight officers. The air station schoolhouse also trains pilots from partner militaries in more than 120 countries, including Saudi airmen.
The Navy-run international training center offers courses teaching skills ranging from basic aviation to five-week courses in advanced leadership for senior Saudi naval officers. The center also provides an eight-week preparatory training course in basic aviation for cadets from the Saudi air force who go on to train with the U.S. Air Force, according to a Navy website.
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DISGRUNTLED SAILOR
The shooting in Florida came just two days after a gunman opened fire at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam near Honolulu, killing two and injuring a third before shooting and killing himself.
The shooter in that incident was identified as an active-duty sailor and his three victims as civilian Defense Department employees working at the base's shipyard.
On Friday, a military official said Gabriel Romero, 22, was unhappy with his commanders and had been undergoing counseling.
Romero also faced nonjudicial punishment, which is a lower-level administrative process for minor misconduct, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters not made public. He used his two service weapons in the attack, the official said.
Military officials said Friday at a news conference that they had not found a motive yet for the shooting but that there's no evidence of domestic terrorism. They said the isolated attack, witnessed by shipyard employees in an area with thousands of workers, unfolded in about 23 seconds.
Romero, who was from Texas and enlisted in the Navy two years ago, was dead when authorities arrived, and he was armed for his job standing watch and providing security for the fast-attack submarine USS Columbia, which is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for maintenance, officials said.
Retired Army Col. Gregory Gross, a former military judge, said that just because Romero faced nonjudicial punishment doesn't automatically mean he should have been taken off watch duty.
"It could have been something as simple as you were late for work," said Gross, who presided over part of the court-martial for the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas.
But if the misconduct were something like assault, then it would have been easy to take Romero off watch duty and take away his weapons, Gross said.
"All it takes is for the commander to say, 'You're not getting a weapon,' and he would be taken off that watch," he said.
It was not known if Romero knew his victims, Roldan Agustin, 49, and Vincent Kapoi Jr., 30.
Information for this article was contributed by T.S. Strickland, Brittany Shammas, Alex Horton, Kim Bellware, Mark Berman, Andy deGrandpre, Kareem Fahim, Dan Lamothe and Ellen Nakashima of The Washington Post; and by Bill Kaczor, Brendan Farrington, Lolita Baldor, Ben Fox, Mike Balsamo, Jon Gambrell, Tamara Lush, Freida Frisaro, Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Caleb Jones, Audrey McAvoy, Mark Thiessen and Rhonda Shafner of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/07/2019