Gunman in airport shooting sentenced to life in prison

MIAMI — An Alaska man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the January 2017 Florida airport shooting that left five people dead and six wounded, a federal judge ordered Friday.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom accepted a plea deal in which Esteban Santiago, 28, agreed to admit to the shooting if prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. Santiago pleaded guilty in May to 11 charges of causing death and violence at an international airport.

Santiago, of Anchorage, Alaska, admitted he opened fire with a handgun in a baggage area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after traveling there on a one-way ticket. He retrieved a box containing a Walther 9mm handgun from checked luggage, loaded it in a restroom and came out firing 15 shots.

Judge Bloom called the rampage “85 seconds of evil” and said she found it difficult to “separate the evil of the acts from the evil in the man.”

“You destroyed families in this senseless attack,” the judge said.

An Iraq war veteran, Santiago was diagnosed after the shooting as schizophrenic but was found competent to understand legal proceedings. Doctors say he has improved with antipsychotic medication.

Santiago initially told the FBI after the shooting he was under government mind control, then switched to unfounded claims he acted in support of the Islamic State extremist group.

Several family members of victims spoke in court Friday, describing their deep sense of loss for those who died and some discussing the health struggles of shooting survivors.

Santiago, a native of New Jersey, has family in Puerto Rico and a young son in Alaska, court records show. He did not speak in court Friday, and no family members spoke on his behalf.