Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting

WEBVTT

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Disprushing. On January sixth, twenty
seventeen, a man exited the bathroom near

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a baggage claim at the Fort Lauderdale
Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida,

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and he opened fire. He had
a semi automatic nine millimeter handgun and

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two clips with him, and he
emptied both of these clips before he hit

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the ground, killing five and injuring
six more people in the absolute chaos that

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broke out during the attack. Another
thirty six people were injured trying to escape

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the stampeding crowds who were dashing for
exits and looking for cover. The shooting

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was a terrifying shock for the whole
country, and perhaps even more so for

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the family and friends of Esteban Santiago
Ruiz. Esteban was born on March sixteenth,

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nineteen ninety in New Jersey, but
he and his family moved to Puerto

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Rico when he was only two years
old. He spent most of his life

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there and even joined the Puerto Rico
National Guard. He was quiet but well

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respected. His neighbors used to salute
him when they passed him on the streets.

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In twenty ten, Esteban was deployed
to Iraq as a combat engineer,

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where he cleared roadside bombs and repaired
bridges, but he returned from service a

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changed man. The sudden and drastic
change in his demeanor reportedly stemmed from the

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time he watched a bomb go off
near two of his friends in Iraq,

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an event that those who knew Esteban
said stayed with him long after he'd come

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home. In twenty fourteen, he
seemed to get a much needed fresh start

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when he and his brother moved to
Anchorage, Alaska. Esteban joined the National

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Guard there, and he even met
a woman and had a child together.

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When Esteban's brother moved away from Anchorage, Esteban was a new father and lived

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in a small but nice apartment with
his young family. On the surface,

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things only seemed to be changing for
Esteban for the better, but by twenty

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sixteen everything had changed all over again. Esteban had gone from a private to

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the National Guard who had ten awards
from his times in service, to a

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belligerent, troubled man who seemed to
be getting more and more violent. He

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left that small but nice apartment and
Anchorage after an alleged attack when he reportedly

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tried to strangle the mother of his
child. From there, he moved into

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a hotel known for attracting all the
wrong sorts of people, and only continued

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to decline. Neighbors would wake up
to Estebon screaming and shouting out of his

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window in the middle of the night. Sometimes they would find him having arguments

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with himself in the car park between
the motel and the liquor store across the

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street. He'd just be talking to
himself, screaming, as if he was

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having a battle with himself. Naomi
Harden, the clerk at that liquor store,

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told the press Estebon himself seemed to
feel that something was going horribly wrong.

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He walked into an FBI office and
anchorage and told the staff there that

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he was hearing voices. These voices, he claimed, came from the United

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States government, and they wanted him
to do things. Sometimes they just ordered

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him to commit violent acts. Sometimes
they wanted him to infiltrate ISIS chat rooms

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and gather intel on terrorists. Those
working at the FBI were understandably a little

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on edge with Esteban's strange confession,
especially because he came to the office carrying

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his infant child. They sent him
to a psychiatrist and confiscated the gun that

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Esteban had to permit for as they
waited for the results of his examination.

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After treatment, the psychiatrist determined that
Esteban was mentally fine, and he was

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discharged. After a further investigation,
Anchorage authorities discovered that Esteban had no ties

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or links to terrorism and he had
not broken the law. They then returned

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his gun to him, but as
a result of his deteriorating mental health and

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increasingly violent outbursts, Esteban lost his
last tether to reality. He was fired

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from his job as a security guard, which was how he'd been earning a

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living. After being discharged from the
Alaska National Guard, Esteban was now officially

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cut loose. Only a few months
later, he booked a one way flight

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to Florida and alerted the airport that
he would be bringing his gun with him.

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The permit for his weapon was valid, and he was free to bring

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the gun as long as he declared
it and had packed it in his check

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in luggage in a secure case.
Esteban followed airport procedures to the te He

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even had a military ID on him. The day of his travels to further

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ease any concerns that staff may have
on the other side of his flight,

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Esteban retrieved his luggage at Fort Lauderdale
Airport and went into the bathroom. There,

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he unlocked the case, put the
clip in his gun, and burst

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out of the room. By his
own account, he then started firing at

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the first people he encountered. The
shooting only lasted for about seventy five seconds,

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but Esteban managed to empty both of
his clips. He then laid down

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on the floor near the baggage claim
and waited to be arrested. It took

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only eighty five seconds from the start
of Esteban opening fire to him being detained,

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and once law enforcement had him,
his confession started almost right away.

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He told the arresting officers a now
chillingly familiar version of events. Esteban said

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that he was being mind controlled by
the American government who wanted him to infiltrate

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online terrorist chat rooms. He couldn't
give a clear motive for his attack on

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the airport or the innocent victims that
were there at the time, and as

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the anchorage authorities had already determined,
Esteban had nothing to do with online terrorists.

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He did, however, later confirm
that the gun he'd used in the

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shooting was the very same gun that
the Anchorage authorities had returned to him back

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in twenty sixteen. After his arrest, Esteban was diagnosed as a schizophrenic.

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Had this been picked up on during
his treatment in twenty sixteen, he would

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have lost his permit to carry a
weapon, meaning that this attack could have

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possibly been entirely avoided. He improved
enough after treatment to be found competent to

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stand trial, where his attorneys pleaded
guilty on his behalf to avoid a potential

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death sentence. Instead, Esteban was
given five consecutive life sentences with an additional

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one hundred twenty years to serve in
prison, essentially meaning that he will never

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be released again. From prison.
Shut down, all roads in and out

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closed. There are tens of thousands
of passengers who are being told to still

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remain here and shelter in place,
and many of them are panicked and anxious

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even now after witnessing the horrific deaths
here. Just before one PM's passengers gathered

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in baggage claim in terminal two shots
fired, a chaotic and horrific scene.

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Bags scattered, freightened passengers and airport
workers streaming out, gathering on the tarmac.

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Officials responding within minutes national your CFS
kamarad incedence of being worked on at

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this time on technical Channel one on
a treminal time mesh casually incident. One

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witness told us the shooter was relentless. He continued firing at and I know

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that at one point he stopped and
reloaded and continued firing again. The Wexler

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family were headed home to Denver after
a Caribbean cruise. He looked down the

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end of the terminal and started seeing
people running. Figured it might be a

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good idea to get out of there. When it was over, eight wounded,

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five dead, Broward County swat teams, deputies and the FBI swarmed the

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area immediately looking for the suspect,
apprehending him shortly after. Twenty six year

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old Estaban Santiago his route. He
flew on Delta Airlines from Anchorage to Minneapolis

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and on to Fort Lauderdale, nine
hours in the air. The weapon he

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used in the attack was in his
checked luggage, according to witnesses. After

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he got his luggage, he then
got the gun loaded in a bathroom and

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began shooting without saying a word.
He allegedly reloaded several times. Once he

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ran out of bullets, he allegedly
put the gun down and got down on

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the floor, waiting for authorities.
We have the shooter in custody. He's

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unharmed. No law enforcement fired any
shots. The subject is being interviewed by

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a team of FBI agents. And
around two thirty more chaos panic in another

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terminal, Terminal one, as passengers
there thought they heard more shots, authorities

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telling them to evacuate. Also to
evacuate Terminal two. People ran outside,

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falling in the rush to get away, Others like Callie Hazel Grove, hiding

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as as she could. There was
another shooting and fleeing head behind something like

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this. Listen to the airport for
a while, and then we realized everyone

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else responds and we ran outside.
Those already outside running and crouching taking cover

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behind cars. Around the same time, reports of a suspicious person in a

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parking garage nearby. You would later
turn out nothing was going on in the

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garage and there were no shots fired
in Terminal one. Meanwhile, a complete

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ground stoppage on all flights in and
out of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood International Airport,

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Broward County. Homicide detectives in the
FBI are right now interviewing the suspect.

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It's unclear if he's answering any of
their questions. The leading question,

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of course, why that's ten minute
murder for today, brief and binge able

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