According to Fox News
Apple refused to help FBI investigators to access the contents of phones belonging to the Saudi aviation student who killed three American sailors in the December 2019 shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Attorney General Bill Barr announced Monday.
Barr, who also revealed the shooter had been in contact with Al Qaeda before carrying out the attack, said the breakthrough surrounding the devices once owned by Mohammed Alshamrani — a 21-year-old 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force — came as a result of the “relentless efforts and ingenuity of FBI technicians.”
“The phones contained information previously unknown to us that definitively establishes Alshamrani’s significant ties to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — not only before the attack but before he even arrived in the United States,” Barr said. “We now have a clearer understanding of Alshamrani’s associations and activities in the years, months, and days leading up to his attack.”
The FBI, following the Dec. 6 shooting, had asked Apple for help in accessing data from a pair of iPhones owned by the gunman, as investigators had been unsuccessful in unlocking the devices.
“It was clear at the time that the phones were likely to contain very important information,” Barr said Monday. “Indeed, Alshamrani attempted to destroy both of the phones, even going so far as to disengage from the gunfight long enough to fire a bullet into one of the phones.”
“Unfortunately, Apple would not help us unlock the phones,” he added.
The information eventually recovered from the phone indicated that Alshamrani’s “preparations for terror began years ago,” according to a statement from the Justice Department.