US authorities on Saturday charged an Iraq war veteran accused of a deadly shooting rampage at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale International Airport with offenses that could carry the death penalty, while continuing to probe whether terrorism was a potential motive.
Esteban Santiago, 26, was accused of killing five, wounding six and sending thousands scrambling for safety on Friday before authorities shut down the airport in Florida, a major gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Federal prosecutors charged Santiago with firearms offenses and carrying out an act of violence at an airport, US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said in a statement.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in prison.
The suspect was scheduled to make an initial court appearance today.
Murder charges could be forthcoming from state prosecutors, but no decision has been made yet, a spokesman for Broward County State Attorney Mike Satz told the local Sun Sentinel newspaper.
Santiago had traveled from Alaska to Fort Lauderdale on Friday. After retrieving a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and ammunition that he had declared and stowed inside his checked luggage, he allegedly loaded the weapon in a bathroom and opened fire in the crowded baggage claim area of Terminal 2.
“Santiago started shooting, aiming at his victims’ heads until he was out of ammunition,” Ferrer said.
FBI special agent George Piro said law enforcement was continuing to investigate motives for the attack, including “continuing to look at the terrorism angle.”
Piro said the suspect appeared to be acting alone and that “every indication is that he did follow [US Transportation Security Administration] procedures in flying with the weapon.”
The shooter was detained without law enforcement having to fire any shots, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
A former member of the Puerto Rico and Alaska National Guard, Santiago served in Iraq from April 2010 to February 2011. He ended his service in August.
On Nov. 7, Santiago walked into the FBI’s Anchorage office and complained that his mind was being controlled by national intelligence agencies, which were forcing him to watch Islamic State group videos, authorities said.
The “erratic behavior” led agents to contact local police, who took him to a medical facility for a mental health evaluation, Piro said.
Anchorage police chief Christopher Tolley said Santiago came to the FBI office with a loaded magazine, but left his gun and newborn child in his car.
Santiago’s weapon was taken by police for safekeeping at the time, and he was able to reclaim it on Dec. 8.
Tolley said it was not known whether it was the same gun used in the rampage in Fort Lauderdale.
Santiago’s brother, Bryan, criticized the way authorities handled his case.
“They had him hospitalized for four days and they let him go. How are you going to let someone leave a psychological center after four days when he said he hears voices that the CIA is telling him to join certain groups?” Bryan Santiago told CNN, in a Spanish-language interview the network translated into English. “Not everyone has the same reaction when they return from war. Some are better, and some, not so much.”
The shooting renewed anxieties about airport security — a concern that has loomed large since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, — and shed new light on ongoing US gun-control debates.
The Fort Lauderdale airport was open on Saturday and staff were trying to return nearly 20,000 pieces of luggage and other personal items abandoned by passengers fleeing the shooting.
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