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Florida Airport Assailant May Have Heard Voices Urging Violence, Officials Say Florida Airport Assailant May Have Heard Voices Urging Violence, Officials Say
(about 1 hour later)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether the gunman who opened fire at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday might have been a mentally disturbed individual who heard voices in his head telling him to commit acts of violence. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal law enforcement officials said they were investigating whether the gunman who opened fire at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Friday, killing five people and wounding eight, was mentally disturbed and heard voices in his head telling him to commit acts of violence.
According to officials, the gunman visited the F.B.I. office in Anchorage sometime before the attack and made disturbing remarks that prompted law enforcement to urge him to seek mental health care. While he heard voices in his head, he told the F.B.I. that he was in control and did not intend to hurt anyone. According to one of the officials, the gunman, identified as Esteban Santiago, 26, had visited the F.B.I. office in Anchorage recently and made disturbing remarks that prompted officials to urge him to seek mental health care.
It was too early to tell whether he might have been inspired by terrorist groups, including the Islamic State, but the F.B.I. was investigating that possibility, the officials said, adding that he had viewed extremism materials on the internet. He told the F.B.I. that he believed that materials had been put on his computer by a government agency trying to control his mind. Officials said it was too early to tell whether Mr. Santiago, who was captured in the airport, had been inspired by terrorist groups, including the Islamic State. The officials said he had viewed extremism materials on the internet.
Shortly after 1 p.m. Friday, the man, who had been an airline passenger, pulled a weapon out of his bag and opened fire in a crowded baggage claim area in Terminal 2, killing five people and wounding eight others, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Shortly after 1 p.m. Friday, the gunman, who had been an airline passenger, pulled a weapon out of his bag and opened fire in a crowded baggage claim area in Terminal 2, officials said.
The man was identified as Esteban Santiago, 26, who enlisted in the Army National Guard in San Juan about nine years ago, and served in Iraq for less than a year, military records show. He later transferred to the National Guard in Alaska where he served as a combat engineer until he was discharged for unsatisfactory performance in 2016. The shooting spurred a scene of panic and confusion that played out on live television as scores of travelers burst out of the terminal and onto the tarmac, running and seeking cover, at times in response to erroneous rumors of follow-up attacks.
A Broward County commissioner, Chip LaMarca, said in a Facebook post that the gunman had checked his weapon in his luggage for his flight into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The baggage claim area in Terminal 2 is used by Delta Air Lines and Air Canada. David Fogarty, a carpenter from Key West, was heading to Cancun on vacation when the people around him suddenly began running toward the gates.
The man then went into the bathroom, Mr. LaMarca said, and “came out shooting people in baggage claim,” which is outside the secure area. Several reports said the man was on an Air Canada flight, but the airline said it had no record of a passenger by that name on its flights. “Everybody was dropping gear, panicking, jumping over tables,” Mr. Fogarty said in a phone interview. “We were saying: What is going on? Are there people shooting? I am not hearing any gunshots, and the whole place is panicking.”
The Broward County sheriff, Scott Israel, said Mr. Santiago was taken into custody without officers firing a shot and was being interviewed by F.B.I. agents and county investigators. The injured were taken to a hospital. Officers took the suspect into custody without firing a shot, and on Friday evening, he was being interviewed by F.B.I. agents and county investigators, as the injured were being treated at hospitals.
On Twitter, President-elect Donald J. Trump said that he was “monitoring the terrible situation in Florida” and that he had spoken to Gov. Rick Scott, who was on his way to the airport. On Twitter, President-elect Donald J. Trump said that he was “monitoring the terrible situation in Florida” and that he had spoken to Gov. Rick Scott.
The shooting set off panic as travelers rushed out of the terminal. Hours after the attack, a picture began to emerge of Mr. Santiago as a man who had served his country, but who had experienced trouble and failure. Mr. Santiago was discharged from the Alaska Army National Guard for “unsatisfactory performance,” in August, according to Lt. Col. Candis A. Olmstead, the spokeswoman for the Alaska Guard.
“Everyone is running,” Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary for President George W. Bush said on Twitter just before 1 p.m. Video footage showed hundreds of people waiting on the tarmac as law enforcement officers rushed to the scene. In an email, Ms. Olmstead said that Mr. Santiago joined the Puerto Rico National Guard in December 2007. In 2010 he deployed to Balad, Iraq, in 2010 with the 130th Engineer Battalion, which spent a year clearing roads of improvised explosives and maintaining bridges; he was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
Mr. Fleischer later posted on Twitter that the situation had calmed “but the police aren’t letting anyone out of the airport.” At least two soldiers from his company were killed in insurgent attacks during the tour, but there is nothing in the record that indicates Mr. Santiago had been in combat.
About 90 minutes after the shooting, panic broke out briefly with passengers and police officers running frantically after passengers in other parts of the airport reported shots being fired. Dozens of officers could be seen with automatic weapons drawn, directing a large group of travelers. Ms. Olmstead said he served in the Army Reserves before joining the Alaska Army National Guard in November 2014. Before his discharge last year, he had worked as a combat engineer as a private first class. An official service record released by the Army on Friday showed that Mr. Santiago had received a number of commendations, including the Army Good Conduct Medal.
The Broward County sheriff’s office said initially that it was investigating reports of additional shots being fired, but Sheriff Israel said during the news conference that the reports were false. Mr. Santiago’s brother, Bryan Santiago, told The Associated Press that Esteban was born in New Jersey and moved to Puerto Rico when he was 2 years old. He also told the A.P. that his brother had been receiving psychological treatment in Alaska, but he did not know exactly what for.
Witnesses told news outlets that the shooter, who appeared to be a man in his 20s wearing a “Star Wars” T-shirt, had been firing into the crowd at baggage claim. Sheriff Israel said that no shots had been fired by law enforcement, countering reports that the gunman had been shot by the police. In a news conference Friday, the sheriff in Broward County, Scott Israel, did not say what the suspect’s possible motive might have been.
John Schlicher, who told MSNBC that he had witnessed the attack, described the gunman as a “slender man” who was “directly firing at us” while passengers waited for their bags. But the shooting comes at a tense time for a nation that has been watching nervously as terror attacks have occurred elsewhere in the world, and as Mr. Trump, who has promised to bar Muslims from entering the country, prepares to ascend to the presidency.
“I put my head down and prayed,” Mr. Schlicher said. Sheriff Israel declined to say whether the suspect had flown into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. But some news reports Friday indicated that his flight itinerary had begun in Alaska.
Dr. Michael Massa, who was traveling home to Los Angeles from Europe, said he heard shots shortly after getting into the terminal. In a Facebook post, a Broward County commissioner, Chip LaMarca, said the assailant had been a passenger on a Canadian flight who had checked his weapon in his luggage and then, upon disembarking, went to the airport bathroom to load it.
“We ran from the terminal out to the tarmac,” Dr. Massa said, who added that officials then directed them toward the east side of the airport where they were waiting behind a building. “Came out shooting people in baggage claim,” Mr. LaMarca wrote.
At one point, he said, officials made everyone go single file, with their hands up, and then patted them down. John Schlicher, a witness who described the scene to MSNBC by phone, said the shooter fired randomly into the crowd. “There were two people to my left and two people to my right who were shot,” he said, “and several of them died.”
Local television news stations showed video of medics taking care of a bleeding victim outside the airport. News helicopters showed hundreds of people standing on the tarmac as an ambulance drove by. Witnesses recounted scenes of confusion and fear.
“All of a sudden there was a stampede,” said Tara Webber, 41, from Allentown, Pa., who was heading home after a four-day cruise to the Bahamas and was waiting with relatives in Terminal 3 for her flight. Those who were not running, she said, “hit the floor.”
She and her father, Dan Trinkle, 63, dove under a set of plastic chairs. Ms. Webber said she almost landed on a little girl, who was crying, and tried to comfort her.
“This was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Ms. Webber, who works for her father’s limousine company. “We’re going to get a car and drive all the way home.”
Her father said he went for the floor like everyone else. “Then the cops told us to leave all our stuff and get out,” he said. “Everything was thrown around all over the place.”
Mr. Trickle said the police and airport authorities seemed unsure of how to handle the situation. “As far as I’m concerned they weren’t prepared for something like this,” he said. “We were all out on the runway for hours. It made no sense.”
He said he and his family were allowed to leave after three hours and go to a hospital only because his girlfriend, Barbara Keinert, 57, had left her insulin on the cruise ship and needed another shot.
The suspect’s name was made public soon after the shooting by Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, who said that he had learned the name from the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, Peter V. Neffenger. Mr. Nelson said that Mr. Neffenger had also told him that the suspect was in possession of an American military identification.
Another Broward County commissioner, Barbara Sharief, said authorities were confident that the gunman had acted alone.
“Based on the preliminary reviewing of the footage tapes, he is a lone shooter,” Ms. Sharief said. “He is alive, he was not harmed, not shot.”
Airport police officers chased the gunman through the terminal as he continued to fire before apprehending him unharmed near a departure gate and arresting him.
The scene that unspooled after shots rang out was intensely chaotic. Live TV showed government vehicles blocking the roads to and from the airport and scores of travelers milling on the tarmac, apparently having been evacuated from the building. Some could be seen marching en masse across the pavement, wheeling bags behind them.
Moments later, the passengers would burst into movement, like frightened birds, running one way or another, apparently in reaction to concerns, which authorities later said were unfounded, that more attacks were underway.
A number of witnesses called in to television news programs almost immediately after it happened. Mr. Schlicher said he had been traveling with his wife and mother-in-law and were just retrieving their bags from a carousel when he heard the first shot.
“I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but I saw the person right to my side fall to the ground, and I turned and looked and the shooter was in the center hallway,” he told MSNBC. Mr. Schlicher did not hear the shooter speak, and described him as slender, with dark hair, and possibly wearing a blue Star Wars-themed T-shirt.
Mr. Schlicher said he and everyone around him dropped to the ground. “I put my head down and prayed,” he said.
The shooting came as Florida lawmakers were preparing to consider legislation that would relax prohibitions on firearms. State laws allow for the purchase of rifles, handguns and shotguns without a permit, though a license is required to carry a concealed weapon in the state.
The legislation, which was proposed last month, would eliminate some “gun free zones” in Florida — which currently include airport terminals, schools and government meetings. The bill was introduced by State Senator Greg Steube, a Republican and longtime opponent of gun-free zones.
As the false alarms subsided at the airport, the scene remained tense. Workers and passengers leaving the airport were searched by law enforcement personnel. Passengers who had been on planes on the tarmac were forced to stay in their seats, where they received updates from captains and crew members.
Television news stations showed video of medics taking care of a bleeding victim outside the airport. News helicopters showed hundreds of people standing on the tarmac as an ambulance drove by.
With the airport shut down, the Federal Aviation Administration said that flights headed to Fort Lauderdale had been delayed or diverted to other airports.With the airport shut down, the Federal Aviation Administration said that flights headed to Fort Lauderdale had been delayed or diverted to other airports.
Live images from WPLG television showed dozens of people milling around on a runway. A number of travelers described harrowing moments of panic. Melody Dorward and a colleague Amberly Buccholz had just stepped off a Spirit Airways flight from Ohio when they got caught up in the tide of people who ran down the terminal.
The last major outbreak of gun violence at a busy American airport was in 2013, when a man carrying an assault rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition began firing at a security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport, killing a Transportation Security Administration officer, sending morning travelers fleeing in panic and paralyzing one of the world’s busiest airports for hours. Three other people were shot and several others were injured. They joined in and were directed out to the tarmac, clustered there with others, shifting from spot to spot.
Airport police officers chased the gunman through the terminal as he continued to fire before shooting him near a departure gate and arresting him. Rumors of more gunfire spread through the crowd, with many convinced that they had heard shots.
Security officials in Los Angeles announced on Twitter Friday that they had stepped up security at the main terminals in the airport. “I called my family to say goodbye,” said Ms. Dorward, 22, an e-commerce worker, “to tell them I love them.”
Others asked to borrow her cellphone to do the same.
The women said they were terrified on the tarmac, unsure of where to hide or whether a second gunman was loose. They were told to crouch down, making them think they could get shot at any moment.
“We felt like we were just sitting ducks,” said Ms. Buccholz, 27. “It was horrible.”