Trump: King Salman offers condolences after Saudi kills three at US naval base in Florida

Flowers and a message are left on the entrance bridge after a member of the Saudi Air Force was the suspect in a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola
Flowers and a message are left on the entrance bridge after a member of the Saudi Air Force was the suspect in a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola Copyright REUTERS/Michael Spooneybarger
By Lauren Chadwick
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The shooting in Pensacola was the second shooting at a US naval base in one week.

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US President Donald Trump said he spoke with Saudi Arabia's King Salman after a member of the Saudi Air Force was identified by officials as the suspected shooter at a navy base in Florida.

Three people were killed and several others injured on Friday morning in Pensacola, Florida, the county's chief deputy sheriff said at a news conference.

"Given that this was a foreign national in the employ of a foreign service... obviously the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims and I think that they're going to owe a debt here given that this was one of their individuals," said Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Trump said King Salman had called to express his condolences. The king said the Saudi people were "angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter," the US president tweeted and told reporters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation would not confirm the name or identity of the shooter and said the investigation was ongoing.

Naval officials told a news conference that the Saudi pilot had been in the US for a military training program.

"We have an international training syllabus. We have students from several different countries that come here. They learn aviation," said Captain Tim Kinsella, from the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.

This is the second shooting at a US naval base this week.

On December 4, a U.S. sailor killed two people and himself at the Pearl Harbor naval shipyard in Hawai'i, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service confirmed at a press conference.

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