Esteban Santiago, Shooter Fort Lauderdale, Is Puerto Rican

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Esteban Santiago, the alleged perpetrator of the shooting this Friday at the Fort Lauderdale airport, is of Puerto Rican descent, his brother Bryan Santiago confirmed to the AP agency.

In his statements, he confirmed that the 26-year-old suspect was receiving some type of psychological treatment in Alaska, where he currently lived, but he does not know what type of illness affected his brother. It had been his girlfriend who alerted them to the situation.

As reported, he was born in New Jersey, but at 2 years old he moved to Puerto Rico, where his family comes from, and grew up in the municipality of Peñuelas. He subsequently served two years of service in the island's National Guard, according to Bryan.

A spokesman for the Puerto Rico National Guard informed the agency that Santiago was assigned to Iraq in 2010 and served a year in the country under the Aguadilla-based engineering company 1013.

The 26-year-old suspect had a permit to carry concealed weapons and a Florida driver's license. He was also licensed with National Guard honors four months ago, military sources confirmed to ABC.

John Schichler, one of the witnesses to the event, managed to see that Santiago was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt the moment he started shooting randomly in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2.

For his part, Broward County Commissioner Chip LaMarca said the young man, who flew from Anchorage, Alaska, to Florida with a stop in Minneapolis, went to a bathroom after landing and took a weapon he was carrying legally and had registered with the airline.

After loading the weapon, he left the bathroom and opened fire on the passengers around him, the commissioner added.

After the shooting, the airport was closed and air traffic was canceled, forcing cancellations and flight deviations.