4 dead, including suspect, in shooting at Florida naval base

Saudi state media did not immediately report on the shooting. The kingdom has relied on the U.S. to train its military.“Obviously, the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims,” DeSantis said. “I think they’re going to owe a debt here, given that this was one of their individuals.”Base commander Capt. Tim Kinsella confirmed at a news conference that the shooter was an aviation trainee at the base. He would not comment on his nationality or possible links to terrorism.President Trump tweeted his condolences to the families of the victims and noted that he had received a phone call from Saudi King Salman. He said the king told him that “the Saudi people are 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.” One of the Navy’s most historic and storied bases, Naval Air Station sprawls along the waterfront southwest of downtown Pensacola and dominates the economy of the surrounding area.Part of the Pensacola base resembles a college campus, with buildings where 60,000 members of the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard receive training each year in multiple fields of aviation. The base’s training program includes a couple hundred from countries outside the U.S., Kinsella said.The base is home is home to the Blue Angels flight demonstration team, and includes the National Naval Aviation Museum, a popular regional tourist attraction.Lucy Samford, 31, said her husband, a Navy reservist and civilian worker on the base, was about 500 yards from where the shooting happened. She said she got a call from him a little after 7 a.m. and “one of the first things out of his mouth was, ‘I love you. Tell the kids I love them. I just want you to know there’s an active shooter on base.’”Her husband, whom she declined to identify, later told her he was OK.The shooting is the second at a U.S. naval base this week. A sailor whose submarine was docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, opened fire on three civilian employees Wednesday, killing two before taking his own life.