The Iraq war veteran accused of killing five people at Fort Lauderdale airport apparently chose to travel to Florida to carry out the rampage, and there are no signs any altercation triggered the attack, authorities said on Saturday.
The 26-year-old suspect, Esteban Santiago, had a history of acting erratically and investigators are probing whether mental illness played a role in America’s latest mass shooting.
He cooperated with investigators during an interview that lasted several hours overnight, George Piro, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Miami, said on Saturday. Mr. Piro said terrorism has not been ruled out as a motive and that the suspect’s recent travel is being reviewed. He stressed it was still very early in the investigation.
Federal charges against Santiago were due to be announced later on Saturday.
Five people were killed and six wounded in the attack, while some three dozen were taken to local hospitals with bruises or broken bones suffered in the chaos as passengers fled Friday’s rampage in the crowded baggage claim area.
Authorities say Santiago arrived in Ft. Lauderdale on a connecting flight from Alaska, and that he retrieved a 9mm semi-automatic handgun from his checked luggage before loading it in a bathroom and then shooting indiscriminately.
Florida Governor Rick Scott said people just trying to live their lives and enjoy the weekend had been senselessly murdered, and that some of the victims were still in surgery fighting for their lives. Asked about official accounts that Santiago acted oddly in the past and had undergone mental health evaluations, Mr. Scott said law enforcement were working hard to figure out a motive.
Commercial flights at the airport resumed on Saturday at three of its four terminals. Terminal two, where the shooting took place, remained closed. Authorities have said Santiago walked into an FBI office in Anchorage in November last year behaving erratically, and that he was turned over to local police who took him to a medical facility for a mental evaluation.
A federal law enforcement official said that Santiago had told the agents in Alaska his mind was being controlled by a U.S. intelligence agency, and that it was ordering him to watch videos made by the Islamic State militant (IS) group. — Reuters
