A shooting Thursday at a Texas naval installation has been linked to terrorism, and a second suspect could still be at large, an FBI official told reporters.
The suspected shooter at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is dead, the FBI also announced at a press briefing. The Navy had earlier announced that security forces “neutralized” an active shooter at the installation and that one security forces member had been injured.
“We have determined that the incident this morning at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is terrorism-related,” FBI Senior Supervisory Special Agent Leah Greeves told reporters.
“The subject is deceased. The scene is still being processed,” Greeves continued. “We may have a potential second related person of interest at large in the community, but we would encourage the public to remain calm and if you see something, say something.”
Greeves did not provide any additional details, citing the investigation.
A Justice Department spokesperson said its counterterrorism section was working with the FBI and local law enforcement to “expeditiously investigate the circumstances of this event and all available evidence, including electronic media found at the scene.”
A Navy statement said the security forces sailor who was injured was in “good condition” and has been released from a nearby hospital.
Naval security forces responded to the shooter around 6:15 a.m. at the base, the Navy said in a statement. Authorities locked down the installation while first responders processed the scene.
The Corpus Christi shooting is the third at a naval installation in the past six months.
On Dec. 4, a sailor killed two and wounded a third at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard before killing himself. The sailor was having disciplinary problems at the time.
Two days later, a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force killed three sailors and wounded several others at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla.
This week, the FBI announced that the shooter, Mohammed Alshamrani, who was undergoing flight training at Pensacola, had longstanding ties to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Police killed Alshamrani at the scene.
U.S. officials stopped short of saying al Qaeda directed the shooting. But the evidence “shows that the Pensacola attack was actually the brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation by a longtime AQAP associate,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
AQAP has claimed responsibility for the attack and said they were in touch with the gunman.
After the attack, the Pentagon tightened security at bases across the country, ordering a stop to all international military student operational training at U.S. installations and directing a review of all vetting and security procedures. Within two weeks, Defense Secretary Mark Esper directed additional measures for background checks and new physical security procedures designed to increase safety.
Story cited here.
