U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed Sunday that at least one Saudi national filmed the attack that took the lives of three and wounded many others in Pensacola.

CNN reports that Esper told Fox News Sunday a number of Saudi nationals were detained after the attack. He indicated that those detained were friends with the gunman and “one or two of those friends recorded the attack.”

Esper noted it was not clear at this point whether the friends began “filming [the attack] before it began or was it something where they picked up their phones and filmed it once they saw it unfolding.”

On December 6, Breitbart News reported that a gunman opened fire at Naval Air Station Pensacola, killing three and wounding numerous others.

The Associated Press reported that the Pensacola gunman was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia, and NBC News reported that the gunman’s name was Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.

On December 8, Breitbart News reported that the gunman acquired his firearm “legally” at retail. He acquired the handgun in Florida, where he would have had to pass a background check and a three-day waiting period.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.