Video shows the moment suspected Fort Lauderdale airport shooter opens fire in baggage claim
A video obtained by TMZ showed the moment a man opened fire Friday in the baggage-claim area of the Fort Lauderdale Airport.
Esteban Santiago - the man authorities believe shot 13 people, five of them fatally, at Terminal 2 in the airport - can be seen wearing a blue shirt walking through the baggage-claim area. The man suddenly reaches toward his waistband, pulls out a handgun, and starts shooting at random.
Santiago, who authorities say reloaded his gun more than once before running out of ammunition and surrendering to police, was taken into federal custody. He was charged Saturday by federal prosecutors and is expected to appear in court Monday.
The 26-year-old National Guard veteran was known to the FBI prior to carrying out the massacre, an FBI official said during a news conference Friday night.
Roughly two months before the attack, in November 2016, Santiago walked into an FBI office in Anchorage, Alaska, claiming voices in his head were telling him to join ISIS. Local police took him into custody in Anchorage and sent him to a medical facility for an evaluation.
Santiago had been serving in Alaska's National Guard but received a "general discharge" in August for "unsatisfactory performance," a lieutenant with the Alaska National Guard told CBS.
His aunt, who lives in New Jersey, told reporters Friday that Santiago had started acting strangely when he returned from Iraq. About a month ago, she said, he "lost his mind."
"He said he saw things," his aunt, Maria Luisa Ruiz, told reporters outside her home in Union City, New Jersey. She mentioned that he had just become a father in September.
Santiago flew Delta from Anchorage, Alaska, to Fort Lauderdale via Minneapolis-St. Paul on Thursday night, NBC reported. He arrived in Fort Lauderdale late Friday morning, which is when authorities say he used a gun he had checked into his luggage to carry out the massacre.