A shooter opened fire Friday afternoon at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, leaving at least five people dead and injuring several others.
A gunman, believed to have acted alone, is in custody.
Update: U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson says the Fort Lauderdale airport gunman was carrying a military ID with the name Esteban Santiago, though it’s not clear if it belonged to him or to someone else.
via NBC:
The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport, located about 25 miles north of Miami, tweeted the incident occurred at a baggage claim inside Terminal 2.
In the aftermath of the chaos, cameras outside the airport showed firefighters and other emergency personnel, plus large groups of passengers, standing on a tarmac. The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately order an official ground stop at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, but officials were not letting anyone inside.
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted that he was at the airport at the time of the shooting and “everyone is running.” He later tweeted that “all seems calm.”The airport says it receives over 73,000 travelers each day.
A law enforcement expert said authorities will try to determine who the suspect is and whether there are other plots afoot.
“You’re trying to understand, is this a one-off guy? Regardless of motive, is he alone, or is there something else?” law enforcement expert Jim Cavanaugh told MSNBC. “We hate to think that way, but that’s the requirement for police commanders — to think that way.”
Fatal shootings at airports, where security is tight, are unusual. In November 2016, a disgruntled former employee opened fire at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, killing a Southwest Airlines worker.
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