Online account linked to Saudi gunman in Pensacola attack quoted Osama bin Laden

The Saudi national who killed three at a Naval base in Florida may have tweeted a quote by al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden prior to the shooting.

The gunman, 21-year-old 2nd Lt. Mohammed Alshamrani, was a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force and was being trained at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida. On Friday, he opened fire with a handgun, killing three and wounding seven.

Just 12 minutes before the shooting took place, a Twitter account with a name matching Alshamrani’s quoted bin Laden and Anwar al Awlaki, an American al Qaeda cleric who was a top recruiter for the terrorist network, according to CNN.

"America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil,” he tweeted, quoting al Awlaki. He followed it up, writing, "You will not be safe until we live it as reality in pleastain [sic], and American troops get out of our lands.”

The second tweet mirrors that of a quote from bin Laden, who said, “The United States will not dream of enjoying safety until we live it in reality in Palestine." There were several other tweets from the account criticizing Americans for their support of Israel.

The Twitter account, which used the handle @M7MD_SHAMRANI, has since been removed for violating the platform’s terms of service. It has not been confirmed by authorities that the account is Alshamrani's.

Alshamrani may have been a fan of al Qaeda, but no terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the attack, which is customary.

The FBI has presumed Alshamrani’s attack to be an “act of terror” and are investigating it as such. Authorities are still searching for several other Saudi nationals who may have contacted the gunman before his shooting. Ten others have already been investigated, and two were found to have filmed the shooting as it was taking place.

Saudi officials have condemned the shooting and are working to retrace the Alshamrani’s steps to see if he was radicalized during a February trip to the Middle East.