nationals. reporter: earlier reports indicated mohammed saeed alshamrani didn t have ties to other terror sore yaightss. but reports are that he gathered with other saudis in the days leading up to the shooting and watched videos of other shootings. he was one of a few hundred foreign pilots that train at pensacola each year. the department of defense has 5,000 students training with the military on american soil. the defense secretary says the screening process should be reviewed. clearly something went wrong with the vetting that goes on between the saudis, the state
shot and killed three people before a deputy shot and killed him at a pence co-sla naval base. the motivation for the shooting is unclear though it s being investigated as a possible act of terror. the act causing the defense department to review the screening process for foreign nationals. joining us now, dave leaf leventhal. dave, thanks for being with us this evening. ever since the jamal khashoggi killing there has been an uneasy alliance between the united states government and the saudi government. this shooting is not going to help. it won t help at all. one could argue that the complicated relationship the united states has had with saudi arabia goes back decades. those of us who were around for
there are some ongoing questions. the motives behind these individuals, were they radicalized and when that might have happened, how the shooter got his gun on base when we know the security checks aren t 100%, but still, where did he obtain the gun and how and when. there s a lot of questions out there. ed: and what about the fact that he was at rockefeller center, the shooter, just a few days from the tree lighting with other saudi nationals? could that have been a dry run? was this a terror cell? are these some of the questions that trouble you? they trouble me, for sure. i think one of the key things, and you point out correctly, is to at ascertain the whereabouts of the shooting and the three accomplices. where were they. the rockefeller center, that s an out of pattern activity, not one you would expect him a place where you would expect him to be traveling. that and anywhere else he visited is, obviously, grave concern. as pete mentioned, there are the others out there as we
department and defense department. what i m most interested in, was this a deliberate infelt tracing on the part of al qaeda or isis as part after the planned effort or was this a one-off radicalization. reporter: the fbi is trying to confirm if an anti-american tweet posted before the shooting came from alshamrani. he made strong anti-israeli and anti-american statements. they would not confirm if it s part of the investigation. the saudi king condemned the shooting and merged full cooperation. i trust this president will get to the bottom of it. i think once the investigation concludes, the president will act swiftly and he will do all he can to make sure this does not hatch again. reporter: the community is grieving the loss of three
to cover funeral costs as they mourn his loss. it s a nightmare i hope to wake up from. this an old wild wild west. this is a shootout that should have never happens. reporter: we are at the initial stages of this investigation and the fbi is looking into it. jon: the pensacola rampage was not the only attack on a u.s. navy facility. authorities are trying to figure out a motive for wednesday s fatal shooting at the pearl harbor base in hawaii. he shot two people before killing himself. he was in counseling and facing