FBI finds al-Qaeda link in Pensacola naval base shooter’s iPhone
Recently unlocked phones show the man who killed three people at a Florida naval base had likely been in contact with al-Qaeda.
The FBI obtained access to locked iPhones belonging to a Saudi military trainee who killed three people at a Florida naval base in December, revealing communications with a suspected member of al-Qaeda, CNN first reported Monday.
Royal Saudi Air Force trainee Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani killed three US service members at Naval Air Station Pensacola in December 2019 and wounded eight other people with a handgun before being killed by local police.
Attorney General William Barr later said during a press conference that information in the phone “definitively establishes Alshamrani’s significant ties to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).”
A Department of Justice statement on Monday alleged that Alshamrani had been radicalized as far back as 2015 and communicated with AQAP associates up until the night before his attack.
