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Nearly 175 Saudi aviation students grounded after Pensacola base shooting
Some 175 Saudi Arabian military aviation students have been grounded in a “safety stand-down,” just days after Saudi Air Force lieutenant Mohammed Alshamrani shot and killed three sailors at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
“A safety stand-down and operational pause commenced Monday for Saudi Arabian aviation students,” Navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Andriana Genualdi told Reuters on Tuesday, explaining that the grounding covered Naval Air Station Whiting Field and Naval Air Station Mayport in addition to Naval Air Station Pensacola.
Alshamrani, one of several hundred foreign aviation trainees at the Pensacola base, was killed in a shootout with Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies on Friday morning. Police were called to the facility at around 7am local time as the Saudi soldier killed three classmates with a handgun and wounded five more; two deputies were also hit in the shootout.
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