PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The Saudi gunman who killed three people at the Pensacola naval base had apparently gone on Twitter shortly before the shooting to criticize U.S. support for Israel and to accuse America of being anti-Muslim, a U.S. official said Sunday as the FBI confirmed it is operating on the assumption that the attack was an act of terrorism.
Investigators are also trying to establish whether the killer, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, of the Royal Saudi Air Force, acted alone or was part of a larger plot.
Alshamrani, who was killed by a sheriff's deputy during the incident at a classroom building Friday, was undergoing flight training at Pensacola, where members of foreign militaries routinely receive instruction.
"We are, as we do in most active-shooter investigations, [working] with the presumption that this was an act of terrorism," said Rachel Rojas, the special agent in charge of the FBI's office in Jacksonville, Fla.
Authorities believe that the gunman made social media posts criticizing the U.S. under a user name similar to his name, but federal law enforcement officials are investigating whether he wrote the words or just posted them, said the U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Investigators also believe that the gunman visited New York City, including Rockefeller Center, days before the shooting, and they are working to determine the purpose of the trip, the official said.
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All foreign students at the Pensacola base have been accounted for, no arrests have been made, and the community is under no immediate threat, Rojas said at a news conference. A Saudi commanding officer has ordered all students from the country to remain at one location at the base, authorities said.
"There are a number of Saudi students who are close to the shooter and continue to cooperate in this investigation," Rojas said. "The Saudi government has pledged to fully cooperate with our investigation."
Security practices at the Pensacola base are under scrutiny amid questions about how Alshamrani carried out his attack in a place where unauthorized weapons are prohibited.
Air Force Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who oversees U.S. base security as chief of U.S. Northern Command, has directed domestic bases and units to "immediately assess force protection measures and implement increased random security measures for their facilities," U.S. Northern Command said in a tweet early Sunday morning.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for better vetting of foreigners allowed into the U.S. for training on American bases. He said the gunman had a social media trail and a "deep-seated hatred of the United States."
"My view is that for us to be bringing in these foreign nationals, you have to take precautions to protect the country," the governor said. He added: "To have this individual be able to take out of three of our sailors, to me that's unacceptable, and I think it could have been prevented with better vetting."
Alshamrani used a Glock 9mm weapon that had been purchased legally in Florida, Rojas said.
DeSantis questioned whether foreigners should continue to be allowed under federal law to buy guns in the U.S., calling it a "federal loophole." The governor said he supports the Second Amendment but that it "does not apply to Saudi Arabians."
Family members and others identified the three dead as Joshua Kaleb Watson, a 23-year-old graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy; Airman Mohammed Sameh Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Fla., who joined the Navy after graduating from high school last year; and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Ga.
Earlier last week, Alshamrani had hosted a dinner party where he and three others watched videos of mass shootings, another U.S. official told the AP on Saturday.
The official who spoke Saturday said one of the three students who attended the dinner party hosted by the attacker recorded video outside the classroom building while the shooting took place. Two other Saudi students watched from a car, the official said.
In a statement, the FBI confirmed Sunday that it had obtained base surveillance videos as well as cellphone footage taken by a bystander outside the building. The bureau said it had also interviewed that person.
Rojas did not directly answer when asked whether other students knew about the attack beforehand or whether there was anything "nefarious" about the making of the video. She said that a lot of information needs to be confirmed by investigators and that she did not want to contribute to "misinformation" circulating about the case.
Rojas said federal authorities are focused on questioning the gunman's friends, classmates and other associates. "Our main goal is to confirm if he acted alone or was he part of a larger network," she said.
President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation that the shooting looked like "terrorism or akin to terrorism." But he cautioned that the FBI was still investigating.
"Look, to me it appears to be a terrorist attack," he said. "I don't want to prejudge the investigation, but it appears that this may be someone that was radicalized." O'Brien said he had not seen evidence of a "broader plot."
HARD LINE ON SAUDIS
Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike drew a hard line with Saudi Arabia as investigators pored over the gunman's past. Speaking on Sunday news shows, politicians were united in calling for Saudi Arabia to aid in the investigations.
On Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., called for Saudi Arabia to be suspended from the U.S. military training program.
"We need to suspend the Saudi program until we find out what happened here," he said, adding that he likes the idea of training foreign pilots and helping them understand how the U.S. system works.
"But there's something really bad here," Graham said. "We need to slow this program down and reevaluate."
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said on ABC's This Week that he spoke with Saudi Arabia's ambassador, Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, who called to offer condolences.
Gaetz said he told the ambassador that the U.S. does not want the kingdom interfering in the case but that it expects Saudi Arabia's full cooperation should investigators need it.
Gaetz said Sunday that the attack must "inform on our ongoing relationship" with Saudi Arabia.
"If there are Saudis that we do not have -- that may have been involved in any way in the planning, inspiration, execution, or finance of this -- [then] we expect Saudi intelligence to work with our government," Gaetz said.
Gaetz said the ambassador assured him that full cooperation would be provided.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., struck a similar tone on Face the Nation, saying officials would press Saudi Arabia to investigate the tragedy, as well. But he also criticized Trump for not being more aggressive with the kingdom.
"I wish the president was pressing the Saudi government for answers," he said.
On Friday, the president tweeted that he had spoken with Saudi King Salman, who Trump said expressed that Saudis were "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."
White House officials stressed on Saturday that the attack would not affect the close relationship between Washington and Riyadh.
Schiff's frustration with Trump's response to the shooting was echoed by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who said it is "unacceptable" that the U.S. continues to aid Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen.
Booker, a Democratic presidential candidate, decried Trump's stance toward the Saudis as "transactional," calling for a broad review of U.S.-Saudi relations.
Information for this article was contributed by Brendan Farrington, Mike Balsamo, Darlene Superville, Lolita Baldor, Ben Fox, and Robert Burns, Jon Gambrell, Bobby Caina Calvan and Tamara Lush of The Associated Press; and by Hannah Knowles, Joby Warrick, Tory Newmyer, Dan Lamothe, Ellen Nakashima, T.S. Strickland, John Hudson and Marisa Iati of The Washington Post.
A Section on 12/09/2019