naval air station pensacola

Four People Dead, Including Suspect, After Shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola

This is the second time in three days that a shooter has opened fire at a U.S. naval base.

  • By Haley Samsel
  • Dec 06, 2019

Four people are dead, including the suspected gunman, after a shooter opened fire at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida on Friday morning. 

At least eight people were hospitalized as a result of the incident, while two victims and the shooter died at the scene. One of the victims taken to an area hospital later died. The Navy base, home to more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel, will be closed all day Friday.

The shooting was first reported around 7 a.m. local time, USA TODAY reported. The suspect, who has been identified as a trainee with the Saudi Air Force, was killed by a sheriff's deputy just before 8 a.m., according to Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan. Two deputies were injured but expected to recover, according to the Associated Press.

"He was training in aviation," Capt. Timothy Kinsella, the base's commanding officer, said of the Saudi national. He declined to comment on whether the shooting is being investigated as a terrorist act, though politicians have already begun to weigh in. The Pensacola base regularly hosts international students for flight training, and a couple hundred students are enrolled in the program, Kinsella said, according to The New York Times.

This is the second time in three days that a naval base has experienced an active shooter incident. On Wednesday, two civilian workers were killed at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard near Honolulu by a gunman who was serving in the Navy.

The shooter eventually turned the gun on himself and died of a self-inflicted gun wound. No motive has been released by investigators, and officials said they are not sure if the workers were targeted or victims of a random attack.

This story has been updated to reflect that another person has died as a result of the shooting. More information will be added as it becomes available. 

About the Author

Haley Samsel is an Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

Featured

  • Gaining a Competitive Edge

    Ask most companies about their future technology plans and the answers will most likely include AI. Then ask how they plan to deploy it, and that is where the responses may start to vary. Every company has unique surveillance requirements that are based on market focus, scale, scope, risk tolerance, geographic area and, of course, budget. Those factors all play a role in deciding how to configure a surveillance system, and how to effectively implement technologies like AI. Read Now

  • 6 Ways Security Awareness Training Empowers Human Risk Management

    Organizations are realizing that their greatest vulnerability often comes from within – their own people. Human error remains a significant factor in cybersecurity breaches, making it imperative for organizations to address human risk effectively. As a result, security awareness training (SAT) has emerged as a cornerstone in this endeavor because it offers a multifaceted approach to managing human risk. Read Now

  • The Stage is Set

    The security industry spans the entire globe, with manufacturers, developers and suppliers on every continent (well, almost—sorry, Antarctica). That means when regulations pop up in one area, they often have a ripple effect that impacts the entire supply chain. Recent data privacy regulations like GDPR in Europe and CPRA in California made waves when they first went into effect, forcing businesses to change the way they approach data collection and storage to continue operating in those markets. Even highly specific regulations like the U.S.’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) can have international reverberations – and this growing volume of legislation has continued to affect global supply chains in a variety of different ways. Read Now

  • Access Control Technology

    As we move swiftly toward the end of 2024, the security industry is looking at the trends in play, what might be on the horizon, and how they will impact business opportunities and projections. Read Now

Most   Popular

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • Unified VMS

    AxxonSoft introduces version 2.0 of the Axxon One VMS. The new release features integrations with various physical security systems, making Axxon One a unified VMS. Other enhancements include new AI video analytics and intelligent search functions, hardened cybersecurity, usability and performance improvements, and expanded cloud capabilities 3

  • 4K Video Decoder

    3xLOGIC’s VH-DECODER-4K is perfect for use in organizations of all sizes in diverse vertical sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality, education and commercial premises. 3

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.” 3