Five dead as gunman opens fire at Florida airport

At least five people were killed by an Iraq war veteran who opened fire causing scenes of panic at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida on Friday, authorities said.

The shooter wore a Star Wars t-shirt, according to witnesses, and surrendered to police without incident after he apparently ran out of bullets, police said.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida told reporters the gunman was carrying a military ID with the name Esteban Santiago, 26.
The gunman had flown from Alaska with a checked gun in his bag, authorities said. The shooter claimed his bag and went to the bathroom to load the gun before coming out and firing.

"At this point, it looks like he acted alone," Broward County Sheriff, Scott Israel, told reporters.

According to his brother, Santiago lived in Alaska where he was undergoing psychological treatment. He was born in New Jersey but moved to the south coast town of Peñuelas, Puerto Rico, aged two, the brother, Bryan Santiago, told the Associated Press.

He served in the National Guard for two years and spent a year in Iraq in 2010, he added. He was serving as a combat engineer in the Alaska National Guard before he was discharged for "unsatisfactory performance," said Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead, a spokeswoman.

Esteban Santiago returned from a tour in Iraq a changed man, his aunt told CNN. "His mind was not right," the aunt, Maria Ruiz Rivera, said.

He talked about the destruction he witnessed, the killing of children and visions that haunted him. "He seemed normal at times, but other times he seemed lost. He changed," she said.

Santiago voluntarily walked into an FBI office in Alaska complaining about voices in his head encouraging him to watch videos of the Islamic State insurgency, law enforcement officials said. He was taken to a medical facility for a mental evaluation and released.

Photos on his social media accounts showed him in military uniform.

The shooting was likely to raise questions about airport security, as well as U.S. rules for carrying guns while under mental evaluation.

The attack was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States in recent years, and the second in Florida in the last seven months. In June a gunman apparently inspired by Islamic State, killed 49 people and wounded 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is the second largest in South Florida after Miami. The airport suspended operations as law enforcement authorities rushed to the scene and emergency medical workers treated at least one bleeding victim on the tarmac.

"Communications received a call around 12:55 p.m. about shots fired at ... Fort Lauderdale -Hollywood Int'l Airport," Broward County Sheriff's Office said in a messaged posted on Twitter.

Security officials moved passengers onto the tarmac underneath jetways on the runway apron, according to TV images. A woman tended to a bleeding, seated man outside an airport building, according to one photo posted on Twitter.

Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary for U.S. President George W. Bush, who was in the airport when the shooting began, said on Twitter shots were fired and "everyone is running."

"All seems calm now but the police aren't letting anyone out of the airport - at least not the area where I am," Fleischer said.