Airport shooter checked out LAX
Gunman switched to Fort Lauderdale for rampage
Three days before carrying out the deadly mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Esteban Santiago researched the layout of Los Angeles International Airport, prosecutors revealed Monday.
Santiago used his cellphone to look up a map of LAX on Jan. 3, 2017, prosecutors wrote in court records. They did not elaborate on why Santiago traveled instead to South Florida.
That same day, Santiago purchased a one-way ticket on a Delta flight from Anchorage, Alaska, where he lived, to Fort Lauderdale, via Minneapolis. The flight departed on Jan. 5 and landed in Fort Lauderdale around lunchtime on Jan. 6.
Santiago, 28, is expected to plead guilty to multiple charges this week and will be sentenced to five life terms plus 120 years in federal prison, according to court records filed Monday.
The sentencing will be scheduled in several weeks. Prosecutors have agreed to take the death penalty off the table in exchange for his guilty pleas to 11 charges linked to the Jan. 6, 2017 mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale’s international airport.
In an unusual move, the agreement — which was signed Monday by Santiago — was filed publicly two days ahead of the court hearing. It won’t be official until Santiago goes through an extensive questioning during a change-of plea hearing Wednesday in federal court in Miami.
Five people died and six were severely injured in the mass shooting, which lasted about two minutes. Santiago fired a total of 15 shots.
Santiago admitted the only baggage he checked on the flight was a hard-sided firearm case that contained a Walther 9mm pistol, Mod-
el PPC, and two magazines loaded with ammunition.
Santiago bought the gun case on Dec. 29, 2016 — eight days before the deadly attack — from Cabela’s sporting goods store in Anchorage, investigators wrote. They said he discussed with a manager the specific type of case that he needed in order to check a gun onto a commercial airplane.
After claiming the gun case from a Delta Air Lines employee in Fort Lauderdale, Santiago hid it under a camouflage jacket he held in his hands. He went into a stall in a men’s restroom in Terminal 2, removed the pistol and loaded one of the magazines into the gun, prosecutors wrote.
“He threw away in the trash a shirt, gloves, hat, and the lock with keys and luggage tag that had been attached to the pistol case. He left behind in the stall the empty pistol case. He then concealed the firearm in his waistband and walked out to the baggage area,” according to the plea agreement. It was about 12:52 p.m. “Santiago pulled out the firearm from his waistband, took aim, and fired several rounds of ammunition at the passengers who were standing in the terminal, aiming at their heads and bodies. At one point, Santiago ran out of ammunition and reloaded a second magazine into the firearm. He then fired all the rounds in the second magazine at his victims.”
“After shooting all of his ammunition, Santiago dropped the pistol on the floor, in lock-back position, meaning that the gun was out of ammunition, and he dropped to the floor.”
Santiago did not attempt to escape and was arrested by Broward Sheriff ’s Deputy Jesus Madrigal, who was working an off-duty detail at the airport.
“Santiago acknowledged his understanding that he had killed people in the attack, and that his actions in this regard were wrong,” according to the plea agreement.
Other revelations by prosecutors on Monday included evidence they say showed that Santiago planned the attack. In the days before the rampage, Santiago threw out some of his possessions, including personal papers and clothing, which were recovered from the dumpster outside his motel in Alaska.
He also left behind what appeared to a “checklist, which included a notation to ‘clean’ the laptop,” prosecutors wrote. They said he removed the old hard drive from his laptop and replaced it with a new hard drive he bought at Wal-Mart. The blank computer was left in his room.
Those killed in the rampage were: Mary Louise Amzibel, 69; Michael Oehme, 56; Olga Weltering, 84; Shirley Timmons, 70; and Terry Andres, 62. And four men and two women, who are identified only by their initials in court records, were seriously injured. Some of the injured were spouses of the murder victims.
Authorities also revealed new details Monday about the survivors’ injuries. Several of them suffered gunshot wounds to the arm, shoulder and neck.
“C.S.T. suffered a gunshot wound to the head resulting in the loss of his left eye and the excision [removal] of part of his skull in order to remove damaged brain tissue … E.A. was shot in the face and required multiple surgeries in order to reconstruct his sinuses, palate and jaw with metal parts,” prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement.
Santiago does not appear to have any significant assets but if he ever comes into any money, he must turn it over as restitution to the victims. The agreement includes any money paid to him, or anyone on his behalf, for “writing, interviews, documentaries, movies, or other information disclosed by the defendant, including, but not limited to access to the defendant, photographs or drawing of or by the defendant, or any other type of artifact or memorabilia.”
He has agreed to plead guilty to five counts of committing violence causing death at an international airport and six counts of committing violence causing serious bodily injury at an international airport.
If his convictions or punishment are ever withdrawn or overturned, prosecutors have retained the right to reconsider seeking the death penalty in the future, according to the terms of the plea agreement.
Santiago, a military veteran who served in the Iraq War, has been locked up since he surrendered in the airport. just moments after the mass shooting. He is jailed in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami and has been prescribed medication to treat schizophrenia.
He was recently examined by a psychologist who found that he is legally and mentally competent to go through with the plea agreement.
pmcmahon@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @ByPaulaMcMahon