Winter Park firm backs lawsuit against Saudi Arabia for Pensacola naval station shooting
A Winter Park law firm known for helping Florida win an $11.3 billion settlement against the tobacco industry is among those now suing Saudi Arabia for its role in the 2019 mass shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola that left three U.S. service members dead and 13 others severely injured.
The Maher Law Firm is one of six firms behind the 152-page complaint filed in federal court Monday by victims and their families.
The suit claims the Saudi Arabian government knew the NAS Pensacola shooter, Royal Saudi Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Al-Shamrani, had openly expressed anti-American sentiments online and was affiliated with a terrorist organization years before he joined a U.S. military training program tied to arms sales between the two countries.
“Saudi Arabia originally acknowledged it was one of their individuals,” said Matthew Mokwa, an attorney with the Maher firm.
“They apologized. They made very express representations that they were going to take care of the families of the victims and offered their condolences.”
But since, the Saudi government has “made absolutely no overtures to compensate the victims or help them or reach out to them in any way,” he added. Those who survived are still dealing with physical injuries and mental anguish, including post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the lawsuit.
“We were robbed of such a precious gift, snuffed out in a moment from hatred and bitterness,” said Benjamin Watson, whose son Joshua Watson was killed during the attack, in a statement. “Our family lost a lot, and our country lost a lot.”
The Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Al-Shamrani, who was killed in a shootout with responding law enforcement, coordinated the Pensacola attack with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has received material support and financing from Saudi Arabia to advance its interests in the Yemen civil war, according to the lawsuit. Even minor vetting by Saudi Arabia should have captured Al-Shamrani’s radicalization, Mokwa said.
About a week before the Dec. 6, 2019 shooting, Al-Shamrani and his fellow Saudi trainees took an unauthorized trip to the 9/11 memorial in New York City, where they paid tribute to the hijackers, the complaint alleges. Later, the suit says, Al-Shamrani hosted a dinner with cadets where he discussed his plan for a mass shooting the following day.
The lawsuit accuses those cadets of doing nothing to stop the attack — instead, they recorded Al-Shamrani’s rampage as he fired hundreds of rounds with a semi-automatic pistol at service members and others nearby.
But then-Attorney General Bill Barr said in January 2020 that there was “no evidence of assistance or pre-knowledge of the attack by other members of the Saudi military,” though 21 cadets who possessed illegal or inappropriate materials, including child pornography and anti-American content, were sent back to Saudi Arabia.
Mokwa said the lawsuit does not conflict with previous statements by the federal Department of Justice because the complaint contains new information. The attorney would not say whether the U.S. government bore any legal responsibility for continuing military training programs despite what the suit describes as Saudi Arabia’s “state-sanctioned support for extremist or terrorist actors.”
“I am not going to get involved in the diplomatic relationships between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “As far as our interest is we think that Saudi Arabia is the [party] who’s responsible for this.”
A DOJ spokesperson declined to comment.
Although the Maher Law Firm is a small practice, Mokwa said it’s no surprise they were asked to join the lawsuit because of their previous work in mass civil litigation.
Like the lawsuit filed by 9/11 victims, the complaint associated with the Pensacola shooting is one of the first claims filed under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which allows U.S. citizens to pursue civil litigation against foreign countries for their role in terrorist attacks.
Mokwa said it was a “privilege and an honor” for the firm to represent survivors and victims’ families.
“They’re some of the most amazing human beings that I have personally ever had the honor of meeting,” he said. “... The fact that they have handled it as well as they have and as honorably as they have is really just a testament to them. It’s also a testament to our armed forces and our service members.”