Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
TMZ video of shooting prompts investigation
Broward County officials are investigating who leaked video footage of alleged gunman Esteban Santiago firing his first shots at the Fort Lauderdale airport, the Sun Sentinel has learned.
A video obtained by TMZ.com shows Santiago pulling a gun out of his waistband and shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where five people were killed and six wounded on Friday.
Airport officials, along with federal and local authorities, are investigating who had access to the footage and who allowed it to be taped without authorization, Broward Mayor Barbara Sharief told the Sun Sentinel.
Sharief said the video does not appear to be the actual security footage but a cellphone video of that footage.
The “footage was being played in a secure room for only people with certain security clearance,” Sharief said. She said she is concerned that whoever released the video did it to make money.
“Nobody gives TMZ a video
for free. You ever heard of that?” Sharief said.
A February expose by the New Yorker magazine revealed how TMZ pays thousands of dollars to land exclusives, going as high as $80,000 for footage of a 15-year-old Justin Bieber using the N-word while singing “One Less Lonely Girl” a cappella.
The Sun Sentinel and other traditional journalism sites do not pay sources for video or information.
Sharief said it’s a crime to copy the airport video without authorization, and she expects the investigation to wrap up in the near future.
“What we were trying to prevent by not releasing that video was copycats,” Sharief said. Baggage claim areas are not “the most heavily guarded areas” and officials don’t want to give ideas to anyone else who might want to do harm, she said.
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told the Sun Sentinel on Sunday that he had no comment on the TMZ video.
Israel said the FBI is leading the investigation. “Anything that’s released or not released will be up to the FBI,” Israel said.
FBI officials said they were aware of the video but were not prepared to confirm or deny its authenticity.
TMZ posted the video but did not respond to an email from the Sun Sentinel about how the site obtained it.