Kindness, bravery defined Lakewood grad killed in Pensacola Naval Air Base attack

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Lakewood High School community is mourning the loss of a recent graduate who was killed in Friday's shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Haitham, whose friends and family called him Mo, graduated in 2018 from Lakewood High School, where he was a track and field star. While there, he became good friends with Bierra Bradley.

"He was really just a good person at heart too," Bradley said. "I could be myself when I was with him."

The 19-year-old enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight crew training after boot camp.

He made a trip home for Thanksgiving and stopped by to see Bradley.

"He came over, we talked for hours," she said. "He was saying he's going to come over on Christmas so he was pretty much telling me to make sure I make a specific cupcake."

That was last Tuesday. It was the last time Bradley would ever see her friend.

Haitham, 19, returned to the Naval base and, on Friday, was killed when a gunman opened fire in his classroom. Two others were also killed.

Haitham reportedly died trying to stop the shooter.

"It's just sad to see how he became someone's victim when he doesn't have any enemies," Bradley said. "Knowing now that he was trying to stop the shooter, it eases it a little bit. It's still hard, a hard pill to swallow."

A second victim, Joshua Watson, is also credited with saving lives when he led first responders to the active shooter, despite having been shot multiple times.

"The sailors that lost their lives in the line of duty and showed exceptional heroism and bravery in the face of evil.  When confronted, they didn’t run from danger; they ran towards it and saved lives," said Capt. Tim Kinsella, NAS Pensacola's commanding officer, in a statement. "If not for their actions, and the actions of the Naval Security Force that were the first responders on the scene, this incident could have been far worse.”

The assault, which ended when a sheriff's deputy killed the attacker, was the second fatal shooting at a U.S. Navy base last week and prompted a massive law enforcement response and base lockdown.