Saudi King expresses sorrow over US Naval base shooting, pledges cooperation

King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has criticised the fatal shooting at a naval base in the state of Florida. The US authorities have stated that the suspect was a Saudi national who was undergoing training at the base as part of a long-standing Navy program open to US allies.

King Salman who has denounced the incident as "heinous" has affirmed that the perpetrator of the crime does not represent the Saudi people, said the official Saudi Press Agency. The Saudi royal called the US President Donald Trump on Friday, December 6, to express his grief over the shooting.

King expresses deep sorrow

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The king has expressed "deep sorrow" and pledged cooperation with American officials, as reported by the official Saudi Press Agency. An Escambia county official, Sheriff David Morgan, identified the gunman as Second Lt Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force, who opened fire in a classroom building with a handgun at a naval station where he was training to become a pilot. 

According to Sherrif Morgan, three people were killed and eight were wounded on base. The shooter was killed by sheriff’s deputies who responded to the incident at dawn. This is the second case of a deadly shooting at a US military installation this week.

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The motive for the violence is under investigation. Following the incident, six other Saudi nationals were detained and are being questioned. According to a person briefed on the initial stages of the investigation, three of them were seen filming the entire incident. Fifteen out of the 19 men involved in the deadly September 11, 2001 attacks were Saudi nationals, some of whom attended flight school in Florida.

The base at Pensacola, on Florida’s Panhandle, dates to the 1820s and is considered to be the home of naval aviation. Since World War I, most Navy and Marine Corps aviators and flight officers have had their flight training the base. The US Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team is also based in Pensacola.