St. Pete mourns victim of the Pensacola Naval base shooting

ST. PETERSBURG — They came to the cream-colored house in south St. Petersburg this week with flowers, cards and aching hearts.

First came U.S. Navy chief recruiter Michael Martin, who signed “Mo” Mohammed Haitham up for the military over a year before. Haitham is the long-legged track and field star at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg who has been in the news all week after last Friday’s shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.

Martin came in full uniform with a bundle of flowers. He removed his cap as he approached the empty driveway. He knocked. No one was home.

“When you join the military, you join a family,” Martin told a stranger from his car window. “He was someone you could tell had a heart, and I wanted to let his family know what we saw in him.”

Martin’s car disappeared down the empty road. It wasn’t long before Ashley Williams pulled up. Williams has also been in the news all week, talking about her cousin.

Williams is the one who told the radio reporters about her cousin’s smile, his sense of humor — how, after graduating last year, Haitham joined the military. She’s the one who told newspaper reporters about how he went through boot camp in Illinois and was assigned to a flight crew training in Pensacola. How on Thanksgiving, he surprised his family in St. Petersburg. He didn’t look the same.

“He looked grown up,” said Ashley Williams, who was more like a sibling than a cousin. “He looked happy. Jumping out of airplanes is something he dreamed of doing.”

Haitham is dead now, one of three victims of Friday’s shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola.

“We’re a big family,” said Williams. “He left a huge hole.”

Haitham was the middle child of three children of Evelyn Brady, a 20-year Navy veteran. His family moved to St. Petersburg from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

In many ways, he was following in his mother’s footsteps and “wanted to help people,” said Linda Davis, who lives next door.

“He was the sweet one,” Davis said.

The anguish spread across the country, as strangers, neighbors, friends and family shared in the shock and grief at the tragedy that had taken the lives of three hopeful men at the dawn of their careers.

Joshua Kaled Watson was a 23-year-old graduate of the U.S. Navy Academy. Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, of Richmond Hill, Georgia, was also killed. He was 21.

The shooting began Friday morning when an aviation student from Saudi Arabia opened fire in a classroom, wounding another eight people. The shooting prompted a massive law enforcement response and base lockdown. It ended when a sheriff’s deputy killed the shooter.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman tweeted that he hopes Haitham’s family finds “peace in knowing that Mo made our community and world better.”

Lakewood High School’s football team took to Facebook to commend Haitman for his courage and heroism.

Principal Erin Savage said at a press conference on Monday that Haitham was nicknamed “the perfect one” and was beloved by students and faculty.

Haitham was a good student, a track and cross country star and a basketball player who also helped manage the girls’ basketball team.

“When you picture Mohammed, you picture a smile,” Savage said, who learned of the shooting on Saturday. “I just kept picturing his face, with a gunman pointing a gun at him and that initial shock and fear. As a mother, that is what took my breath away.”

Tobias Ryckis, 18, a friend and fellow trackmate said Haitham “had this personality — big smile. People would always gravitate toward him. But he was also a stick-up-for-the-little-guy kinda guy.”

Ryckis’ was bullied during freshman year at Lakewood High School. It didn’t take long for Haitham to take notice — and intervene.

“Mo stuck up for me,” Ryckis said. “He talked to them and they stopped. That was the kind of guy he was.”

After leaving Lakewood High School, Ryckis found himself in Panama City, two hours from where Haitham was stationed. They promised to see each other after he finished basic training.

Airman Haitham’s commanding officer told his father, Sameh Haitham, that his son had also tried to take down the gunman, the New York Times reported Monday.

“That was the type of person Mo was,” Ryckis said of Haitham. “When things got tough, he always wanted to be sure that he put other people’s interests ahead of his own.”