US Prosecutors Charge Florida Airport Shooting Suspect

The suspect, who appears to have acted alone, gunned down 13 people in the baggage reclaim area at Fort Lauderdale Airport.

Broward County law enforcement is investigating the leak of video footage that shows alleged gunman Esteban Santiago opening fire last week at a Fort Lauderdale airport.

“He wasn’t the same after he came from Iraq and after his father”, Michelle Quinones said in an interview the media outlet.

Piro said investigators have not ruled out terrorism as a reason for the attack and were reviewing the suspect’s recent travel.

After 13 people were shot at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport and at least five died, passengers will notice increased patrols at Minneapolis-St.

He has been charged with performing an act of violence against a person at an airport serving worldwide civil aviation and two other counts.

He told investigators that he randomly opened fire, shooting the first people he saw when he left the restroom.

“There is an ongoing incident in Terminal 2, Baggage Claim”, said a post on the airport’s Twitter account.

The attacker was described by a witness as a slender man wearing a blue Star Wars t-shirt, and was named as Santiago-Ruiz by Senator Bill Nelson.

The suspect had a gun inside his checked luggage, after declaring the weapon with airport authorities and then used it in the shooting rampage, law enforcement sources told USA media.

Esteban Santiago, 26, who was taken into custody immediately following the shooting and questioned at length, was expected to face federal charges in the shooting rampage, said George Piro, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s office in Miami. He grew up in Puerto Rico, served in the National Guard there and later in Alaska, service that included a tour of duty in Iraq. He received a general discharge from the Alaska Army National Guard on August 16, 2016, for unsatisfactory performance, the spokeswoman said. But his brother said little was done.

His aunt told a local newspaper he had “lost his mind” while serving in Iraq. “These kinds of tragedies have happened too often during the years that I’ve been president”, Obama said. In a tweet, President-elect Donald Trump sent his “thoughts and prayers”.

In the video, shaken passengers are seen next to the luggage conveyor belt where the assailant was able to quickly remove his gun from his bag.