Before Florida Shooting, Gunman Showed Off Videos of Mass Attacks
Investigators are still trying to understand the motive of a Saudi trainee who fatally shot three people at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
A tribute to the victims of the shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a foreign trainee fatally shot three people.
A tribute to the victims of the shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, where a foreign trainee fatally shot three people.Credit...Brendan Farrington/Associated Press
By Frances Robles, Eric Schmitt, Patricia Mazzei and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Dec. 7, 2019
PENSACOLA, Fla. — As federal authorities worked on Saturday to piece together clues to last week’s attack at a Florida military training base, new details emerged about the gunman, a Saudi trainee who had apparently shown videos of mass shootings at a dinner party the night before.
Several days earlier, the gunman and three other Saudi military trainees visited New York City, including several museums and Rockefeller Center, according to a person who was briefed on the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly.
Investigators were seeking to determine whether the New York trip was a tourist excursion — foreign students often take recreational trips — or whether there were other motives. They also hoped to learn whether the group met with other people during the trip.
The 21-year-old gunman, identified as Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, did not appear to have any ties to international terrorist groups, said a senior American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about investigators’ findings.