Saudi airman in U.S. for training suspected in deadly shooting at Florida naval base

[rooster59]

Saudi airman in U.S. for training suspected in deadly shooting at Florida naval base

By Maria Caspani and Idrees Ali

 

The main gate at Naval Air Station Pensacola is seen on Navy Boulevard in Pensacola, Florida, U.S. March 16, 2016. Picture taken March 16, 2016. U.S. Navy/Patrick Nichols/Handout via REUTERS

 

(Reuters) - A member of the Saudi Air Force visiting the United States for military training is the suspect in a shooting that killed four people and injured eight at a U.S. Navy base in Florida on Friday, the state governor and other officials said.

 

The shooter was armed with a handgun and was killed by sheriff's deputies responding to the dawn incident at Naval Air Station Pensacola, the Navy and local sheriff's office said, the second deadly shooting at a U.S. military installation this week.

 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the suspect was a Saudi national attending training at the base as part of long-standing Navy programme open to U.S. allies.

 

"The government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims. They are going to owe a debt here, given that this was one of their individuals," DeSantis said at a news conference.

 

U.S President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia's King Salman called him to offer condolences and sympathy to the victims.

 

"The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter," Trump wrote on Twitter.

 

In a statement, Salman condemned the shooting and said Saudi security services were working with U.S. agencies to uncover the cause.

 

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

 

The FBI said it was the lead investigative agency on the incident, which played out over two floors in a classroom building at a base whose main function is training.

 

The first reports of an "active shooter" on the base reached the Escambia County sheriff's office at about 6:51 a.m. and a few minutes later a sheriff's deputy fatally shot the suspect in a classroom on the base, Sheriff David Morgan said.

 

The suspected shooter was Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

TRAINEES HIGHLY VETTED

 

In recent weeks, 18 naval aviators and two aircrew members from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces were training with the U.S. Navy, including a stint at Pensacola, according to a Navy press release. It was not clear if the suspected shooter was part of that delegation.

 

The group came under a Navy programme that offers training to U.S. allies. A person familiar with the programme said Saudi Air Force officers selected for military training in the United States are intensely vetted by both countries.

 

The Saudi personnel are "hand-picked" by their military and often come from elite families, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to speak to a reporter.

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he wanted to see whether U.S. vetting of these foreign military personnel was adequate.

 

"I want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to understand: What are our procedures? Is it sufficient?" Esper told reporters. "Are we also screening persons coming to make sure they have their life in order, their mental health is adequate."

 

Senator Rick Scott of Florida called for a full review of U.S. military programs training foreign nationals on U.S. soil.

"We shouldn't be providing military training to people who wish to harm us," Scott wrote on Twitter.

 

Two sheriff's deputies were injured in the attack, one shot in the arm, the other in the knee, but both were expected to survive, officials said at the news conference.

 

Eight people were taken to Baptist Hospital for treatment, hospital spokeswoman Kathy Bowers said.

 

The Pensacola base, near Florida's border with Alabama, is a major training site for the Navy and employs about 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel, according to its website.

 

Military personnel are normally restricted from carrying weapons on U.S. bases unless they are part of their daily duties.

Nonetheless bases have seen deadly mass shootings before, including one in Ford Hood, Texas, in 2009 that left 13 dead and one at the Washington Navy Yard in 2013 that killed 12.

 

On Wednesday, a sailor shot three civilians at the historic Pearl Harbor military base in Hawaii, killing two of them before taking his own life.

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Maria Caspani in New York and Idrees Ali, Jonathan Landay and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Phil Stewart in Simi Valley, California; Writing by Andrew Hay; Editing by Scott Malone, Steve Orlofsky and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-07

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[Credo]

Let me see, a Saudi in the US to learn how to fly a plane, what could possibly go wrong?   Have we learned nothing?

 

[Tug]

damm Scum bag what happened sombody hurt his feelings

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the suspect was a Saudi national attending training at the base as part of long-standing Navy programme open to U.S. allies.

 

"The government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims. They are going to owe a debt here, given that this was one of their individuals," DeSantis said at a news conference.

Odd thing to focus on so soon after such a tragedy. 

[metisdead]

A post containing some Twitter posts has been removed as this is not a Twitter site. 

[Opl]

• “The Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter,” Trump said the king told him.
• Trump declined to call the shooting an act of terrorism, says “there will be a report and the report will come out very soon.”

[Farma]

Sources identified the suspected gunman as Saudi Air Force aviation student Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani 

As of Friday evening, six Saudi nationals have been detained for questioning

It's reported that three of them filmed the shooting as it happened

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7764063/Naval-Air-Station-Pensacola-Florida-lockdown-reports-active-shooter.html

[spidermike007]

3 hours ago, Opl said:

• “The Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter,” Trump said the king told him.
• Trump declined to call the shooting an act of terrorism, says “there will be a report and the report will come out very soon.”

Trump has completely sold out to MBS. He cannot be critical. It is not permitted in the contract. 

[spidermike007]

I said it once, and i will say it again. Of the real enemies the US and the West have, the two greatest ones are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. They both cause endless problems for the planet. SA would be an economic backwater, that nobody ever heard about, without it's vast deposits of natural gas and oil. If only. 

[sqwakvfr]

Saudi’s have been training at US Military Training bases for decades.  I was in flight school in Alabama and we had a Saudi and an Israeli(I am an old old man so this was a really long time ago).   The class was divided in two sections and the two could never be in the same room or in eyesight.  My class hasGermans(really good pilots) a guy from Senegal, Columbia and some Air Force guys(we considered them as foreign as well).  

[Ireland32]

How many times are Saudis going to kill Americans before they get the message, look at 911 <deleted>

[Ireland32]

4 hours ago, Opl said:

• “The Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter,” Trump said the king told him.
• Trump declined to call the shooting an act of terrorism, says “there will be a report and the report will come out very soon.”

Were they angered about 911

[Sujo]

I bet iraq is scared.

[Opl]

“I’m against evil, and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil. “I’m not against you for just being American, 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,”

 

he was thoroughly vetted both by S.A and the U.S, 

[Gene1960]

Why I am not surprised?

[whitewolfchefny]

1 hour ago, sqwakvfr said:

Saudi’s have been training at US Military Training bases for decades.  I was in flight school in Alabama and we had a Saudi and an Israeli(I am an old old man so this was a really long time ago).   The class was divided in two sections and the two could never be in the same room or in eyesight.  My class hasGermans(really good pilots) a guy from Senegal, Columbia and some Air Force guys(we considered them as foreign as well).  

I’m An Old Marine Guy Too, I Was Part Of An AV8 Harrier Training Squadron. We Also Trained Stud Pilots From UK, SA, Canada. (I’ve Been Out Of The USMC Since 1987). 

[car720]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

I said it once, and i will say it again. Of the real enemies the US and the West have, the two greatest ones are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. They both cause endless problems for the planet. SA would be an economic backwater, that nobody ever heard about, without it's vast deposits of natural gas and oil. If only. 

Agreed.  Harold Robbins knew it well.

[xylophone]

1 hour ago, Ireland32 said:

Were they angered about 911

No, they financed it.

[car720]

Question:  On a military base 2 deputies have to shoot him.  Doesn't the American military have any guns?

[JHolmesJr]

And yet when he proposed a ban on people from certain countries, until better vetting processes could be put in place,

he was likened to hitler.

[spidermike007]

9 minutes ago, car720 said:

Question:  On a military base 2 deputies have to shoot him.  Doesn't the American military have any guns?

They have rules and procedures and less psychopaths. That's why most of the killings are by civilians who have very easy access to weapons in the broken US. Shootings on bases are relatively rare compared to the common school shootings. 

[mogandave]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Trump has completely sold out to MBS. He cannot be critical. It is not permitted in the contract. 

Wait a minute, I thought he completely sold out to Russia? And what about North Korea? 
 

Surely with the Russian and North Korea contracts already in force, he can’t completely sell out to the Saudis. 
 

What should he have said? 

[metisdead]

Trump says King of Saudi Arabia offered his ‘sincere condolences’ in wake of Pensacola shooting

 

 

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by phone to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Al-Saud, following a deadly shooting on a Pensacola, Florida naval base. Authorities have said that the shooter, who killed at least three people and wounded at least eight, was a visiting Saudi national.

“King Salman of Saudi Arabia just called to express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies to the families and friends of the warriors who were killed and wounded in the attack that took place in Pensacola, Florida,” Trump tweeted shortly after 2:00pm on Friday.

 

Read more here:  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/06/trump-saudi-king-offered-condolences-in-wake-of-pensacola-shooting.html

[Curt1591]

The dead shooter is deemed a "suspect"? 

[yogi100]

8 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Odd thing to focus on so soon after such a tragedy. 

There is little else they can do after such an atrocity. A murderous rampage is not exactly a tragedy

[Bluespunk]

37 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

There is little else they can do after such an atrocity. A murderous rampage is not exactly a tragedy

All loss of life in such circumstances is a tragedy. 

[metisdead]

Some off topic posts have been removed. 

[candide]

4 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

And yet when he proposed a ban on people from certain countries, until better vetting processes could be put in place,

he was likened to hitler.

Come on, this was a joke!  Nationals from most of the countries listed had never been involved in any terrorism on US soil. On top of it, SA and Afghanistan were not on the list, lol!

[Tug]

4 hours ago, JHolmesJr said:

And yet when he proposed a ban on people from certain countries, until better vetting processes could be put in place,

he was likened to hitler.

Trump is wholeheartedly in their pocket rember the journalists?rember trump wanting to sell them nuclear technologie?rember 911?i sure rember the vetting process for my wife back in the 80s 2 years!just a simple Thai girl and you suggest our ins doesent vett people from the Middle East stop trolling why don’t the moderators Flagg thease trolls 

[RideJocky]

4 minutes ago, Tug said:

Trump is wholeheartedly in their pocket rember the journalists?rember trump wanting to sell them nuclear technologie?rember 911?i sure rember the vetting process for my wife back in the 80s 2 years!just a simple Thai girl and you suggest our ins doesent vett people from the Middle East stop trolling why don’t the moderators Flagg thease trolls 

He did not suggest they were not vetted, he suggested the vetting could be better. 
 

Why the attempt to shut down the conversation?