The gunman and three other Saudi military trainees visited New York City recently, including several museums and Rockefeller Center, according to the person. Investigators are seeking to determine whether the trip was a tourist excursion during the Thanksgiving holiday week in New York, or whether the Saudi trainees had other motives or met with other people there.
Lieutenant Alshamrani initially entered the United States in 2017, when his training with the United States military began, Pentagon officials said. After his initial arrival in the country, he attended language school at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, the officials said, and took classes in English and aviation.
During school breaks, he would travel home to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon officials said. When he returned to the United States in February, friends and colleagues noticed that he had become more religious, said the person briefed on the investigation. It was not immediately clear what he did between February and this week, when he signed into his new training unit in Pensacola, but he had been living in the area.
Six other Saudi nationals were detained for questioning near the scene of the shooting, which took place over two floors in a classroom on the base. Three of the Saudis who were detained had been seen filming the entire incident, according to another person briefed on the investigation.
It was not known whether the six Saudis detained were students in the classroom building, and there was no immediate indication that those filming the incident were connected to the gunman, the person said.
The Saudis who filmed the shooting told investigators that they just happened to be there at that time, were caught up in the moment and wanted to capture it, the person said.
The authorities have said that there is no credible threat to the Pensacola community, and one of the senior officials said that all Saudi trainees on base had been accounted for.
But federal law enforcement officials said it was too early to establish the gunman’s motive.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist activity, cited a Twitter account with a name matching the gunman that had posted a “will” calling the United States a “nation of evil” and criticizing its support for Israel.
SITE said the account had also quoted Osama bin Laden, the former Qaeda leader, and was critical of United States foreign policy. “I’m not against you for just being American,” the posts said. “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.”
The account could not be independently verified, and law enforcement officials did not confirm that it was connected to the gunman.
The gunman used a locally purchased Glock 45 9-millimeter handgun with an extended magazine and had four to six other magazines in his possession, according to one of the people briefed on the investigation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/us/n ... ctims.html
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