A man who shot and killed five at a Florida airport this January was paged by Delta Airlines to pick up his gun before he went on his killing spree.
According to a 30-page report released by the Broward Sheriff’s Office on Friday, Esteban Santiago was waiting at the baggage carousel at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 6 before he was paged to pick up a bag.
Minutes after the 27-year-old picked up the bag, which contained a gun, the shooting began, where he injured six and killed five.
The victims were identified as: Shirley Timmons, 70; Olga Woltering, 84; Michael Oehme, 57; and Terry Andres, 62; and Mary Louise Amzibel, 69.
Esteban Santiago, 27 (pictured, center), who killed five and injured six at a Florida airport this January, was paged by Delta Airlines to pick up his gun before he went on his killing spree
Santiago was waiting at the baggage carousel at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 6 before he was paged to pick up a bag. The bag contained the gun he used in the shooting. (Pictured, victim Shirley Timmons, 70, left, and Olga Woltering, 84, right)
The Sun Sentinel reported that the document is the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s final review of its actions following the mass shooting. The page by Delta is a new detail in the airport shooting, but the report didn’t disclose whether airline officials knew what was in the bag.
On that afternoon, passengers from all terminals at the airport fled in a panic over erroneous reports of an additional airport shooter.
The report also shed light on the extent of the radio problems police and fire personnel encountered in attempting to communicate as state, local and federal officials answered calls for backup and converged on the airport.
Also according to the report, at one point, the crush of users sent the system into a ‘fail-soft’ mode and all connections between responding agencies were lost.
Dispatchers were not able to quickly reconnect groups and told ‘all units to stop transmitting until the radio bridges could be restored’.
It took about four minutes, the report said. But the system began to ‘throttle’, which resulted in garbled transmissions in which Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies and fire officials could only hear parts of words or phrases.
Santiago (left and right) pleaded not guilty to a 22-count indictment. He has stopped taking anti-psychotic medication to treat schizophrenia but remains mentally competent to stand trial, his lawyer told a judge last month
Santiago, of Anchorage, Alaska, was caught by a deputy within minutes of the shooting (pictured)
But an hour and a half later, the false reports of additional gunfire resulted in bedlam at the busy airport (pictured)
Santiago, of Anchorage, Alaska, was caught by a deputy within minutes of the shooting. But an hour and a half later, the false reports of additional gunfire resulted in bedlam at the busy airport.
A US Customs and Border Patrol officer thought he heard shots and relayed the information to a sheriff’s officer fire captain who broadcast it over the radio as ‘Border Patrol reporting shots fired in Terminal 2,’ the Sun Sentinel reported.
‘The words “shots fired” spread throughout the airport and triggered pandemonium as thousands of travelers, airline and airport employees began to escape from the concourses, gates, baggage claim areas, curbside loading areas and parking garages of all four terminals,’ the report stated.
The report also shed light on the extent of the radio problems police and fire personnel encountered in attempting to communicate (pictured, victims cower as Santiago shoots)
Dispatchers were not able to quickly reconnect groups and told ‘all units to stop transmitting until the radio bridges could be restored’ (Pictured, victims hide as the airport goes into lockdown)
The report is much shorter and far less critical than a 99-page draft report released in June that faulted the agency for failing to seize control and set up an effective command system, the newspaper reported.
Santiago is an Iraq war veteran with the National Guard who grew up in Puerto Rico but later moved to Alaska. His reason for choosing the Florida airport has not been disclosed.
He pleaded not guilty to a 22-count indictment. He has stopped taking anti-psychotic medication to treat schizophrenia but remains mentally competent to stand trial, his lawyers told a judge last month.
Santiago told showed up at FBI office last November and told agents he was hearing voices and was under CIA mind control.
The Justice Department may seek the death penalty in a trial currently set for January 2018.