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The suspect killed during what the FBI is calling a “terrorism-related” attack at a Texas naval air base voiced support for hardline clerics, according to a group that monitors online activity of jihadists.

The attack Thursday at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi wounded a sailor and left the gunman dead. The gunman was identified on Friday by the FBI as Adam Salim Alsahli, 20, of Corpus Christi. He had been a business major at a local community college.

The gunman tried to speed through a security gate at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, opening fire and wounding the sailor, a member of base security, U.S. officials told the AP. But the sailor was able to roll over and hit a switch that raised a barrier, preventing the man from getting onto the base, the officials said.

Other security personnel shot and killed the attacker.

There was an initial concern that the gunman may have had an explosive device, but Navy experts swept the area and the car and found nothing. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details about an ongoing investigation. Officials worked late Thursday to process the crime scene and had recovered some type of electronic media.

Social media posts

The FBI was examining social media posts investigators believe were made by the shooter expressing support for extremist groups, including al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, two officials familiar with the investigation told AP on condition of anonymity

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday on NBC's "Today" show that the wounded sailor was “doing well.” He also said the FBI knew the basics of what happened during the attack but was working through details, including those related to the suspect.

“We hope to know more in the coming days as to what happened, what this person was motivated by,” Esper said. “But we need to let the facts come out, let the investigators do their job, and we’ll see where this ends up.”

Social media accounts matching Alsahli’s profile on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp featured support for hardline clerics, mostly from Saudi Arabia, and jihadi figures such as Ibrahim al-Rabaysh, who had been a spokesman for the Yemen branch of al-Qaida and who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2015, according to Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group.

Alsahli had been a student at Del Mar College, a community college in Corpus Christi, according to a statement on Friday from school spokeswoman Melinda Eddleman. He had been a business administration major and had attended classes in the fall 2018, spring 2019 and fall 2019 semesters.

A search of court records in Corpus Christi showed Alsahli had received a traffic ticket in August for failing to yield. The ticket was dismissed in January after Alsahli took a driver safety course.

FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Leah Greeves said at a news conference Thursday that investigators were working to determine whether a second person of interest was at large, but she did not elaborate. She also would not discuss a potential motive.

Items taken from house

Later, federal agents were seen carrying items from inside a house that a Corpus Christi police tactical unit had surrounded and a public records search by local television station KRIS indicated was Alsahli’s last known address. A police spokesman would not confirm that the activity was related to the shooting at the naval station.

The injured sailor was discharged from a hospital where she was treated for minor injuries, according to a statement from the command.

The station, which was locked down for about five hours Thursday, had a similar lockdown in December. In another incident at the base last year, a man pleaded guilty of destruction of U.S. government property and possession of a stolen firearm for ramming his truck into a barricade.

The shooting also came months after a Saudi air force officer who was training at a Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight other people in a shooting that American officials described as an act of terrorism. The country’s top federal law enforcement officials said this week that the gunman in December’s attack, Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, had been in touch with al-Qaida operatives about planning and tactics in the months before the shooting. Alshamrani was killed by a sheriff’s deputy.

According to U.S. officials, unlike Pensacola, there are no international or foreign national students at the Texas base. The military put several new safety procedures in place after the Pensacola shooting to restrict and better screen international students.