Watson, et al. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Pensacola, FL

The families of three slain U.S. service members and 13 others wounded in a mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in 2019 alleged in Feb 2021 that the government of Saudi Arabia facilitated the attack that U.S. authorities concluded was an act of international terrorism. It is alleged that the Royal Saudi Air Force 2nd Lt. Ahmed Mohammed al-Shamrani, executed the attack with the support of "accomplices." The plaintiffs alleged that those included fellow Saudi air force trainees, who he told of his plans at a dinner the night before and during a November visit to the 9/11 memorial in New York City to pay tribute to the hijackers. Al-Shamrani, who was killed by responding sheriff's deputies, worked with al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula for five years to plan the Dec. 6, 2019, attack. It is also alleged that Saudi authorities knew of the radicalization and anti-American and anti-Jewish statements of Shamrani — an al-Qaeda operative who made his first contact with al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula by at least 2015 — which he shared via Twitter; it is also alleged that the Saudi commanding officer on base and 11 other trainees it did not name knew that Shamrani purchased and stored a 9mm handgun and ammunition on base in violation of U.S. and Saudi policy; and that Saudi officials left the commanding officer's post unfilled from September 2019 until after the shooting.