More calls to 911 relate airport chaos

Many panicked reports from people not close to shooting

Nearly two hours of 911 calls released by authorities this week detail the fear and panic that swept through all four terminals of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after a mass shooting that was confined to one baggage area.

Local and federal officials say the only shots on Jan. 6 were fired in Terminal 2, where five people were killed and six more were gravely wounded. Esteban Santiago is accused of several federal crimes related to the shootings.

Still, the calls reveal widespread confusion and alarm about the scene unfolding midday at one of South Florida’s main welcoming points for tourists, businesspeople and returning residents.

The desperate calls came from the backs of kitchens, from airplanes and from behind the blocked doors of offices and storage rooms at the airport.

“People are freaking out here, sir!” a woman tells a 911 operator, saying she was with a group of pas-

sengers and airport workers crowded into the Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear Grill in Terminal 3.

“Try to barricade yourself somewhere, OK?” the operator replies.

“Sir, I can’t tell what a safe place to be is now,” the caller says.

The apprehension was pervasive.

One woman tells the 911 operator she was holed up in a janitor’s closet and did not know whom to trust outside.

She asks that police use a code word when approaching her hiding place. “If they come, I need them to holler, um, ‘spunky.’ That way I’ll know it’s an officer outside this door.”

The operator is understanding.

“OK, I’ll let them know, OK? I’ll send the dispatcher a message and let them know that’s what you want to hear; spunky.”

The releases this week include 24 of 135 emergency calls received by 911. They chronicle the hysteria during the shootings and unsubstantiated reports of additional shooters in other terminals.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office provided the calls in two batches in response to a formal records request from the Sun-Sentinel and other news organizations. BSO deferred to the FBI, the lead agency on the investigation, to decide which calls could be made public.

The calls are not timestamped to show when they were received on Jan. 6, so it’s impossible to determine a sequence of events, leaving a disjointed and fragmented picture of what happened at the airport that day. Authorities have not released any 911 reports from direct witnesses to the killings.

Instead, the calls came from those who were in Terminal 2 but didn’t see the shooting, or from Terminals 1, 3 and 4, where people said they thought they saw someone with a gun or heard what they thought were shots.

In the calls released so far, no one reported seeing someone shooting.

The 911 dispatchers seemed patient, urging callers to stay on the line. They generally advised those caught in the chaos to seek shelter or to follow the instructions of authorities on the scene.

But it was clear that the operators themselves did not know exactly what was happening in the initial bedlam.

“Do you know where the shooter is, in our terminal?” asks a worker locked inside the Delta Sky Club with others on the departure level of Terminal 2.

“No, we don’t. We’ve gotten calls from Terminals 1, 3 and 2. We’ve had multiple calls,” the operator replies. “Keep yourself locked inside, OK?”

Brett Bayag, director of the county Office of Regional Communication and Technology, which runs the county’s 911 operations, said the system functioned normally and that there have been no complaints from the public about the emergency operators.

Santiago, a 26-year-old Iraq War veteran, flew from Anchorage, Alaska, to Fort Lauderdale, with a stop in Minneapolis, to carry out the attack, authorities said. After picking up his gun case from the baggage carousel in Terminal 2, he went to the restroom to load his semiautomatic pistol, emerged and started shooting.

Santiago pleaded not guilty Monday to 22 federal charges and is being held at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.

He was due in federal court Friday morning for his first hearing with the trial judge assigned to his case. He could face the death penalty.

Santiago was caught within 90 seconds of the killing spree, lying on the ground and surrendering.

About an hour and a half after Santiago was in custody, reports emerged of additional shooters in other terminals, which authorities say were false but, nonetheless, set off a stampede of people running for their lives. In some cases travelers remained in hiding places and outside on the tarmac for hours. One call came from a Jet Blue operations worker who said he and some customers ran onto a plane to take cover after hearing of a shooter in the gate area of Terminal 3.

“Was he actually shooting?” the 911 operator asks.

“No, no, not that I heard of; I didn’t hear him do it,” the man replies.

The operator advises the airline worker to stay on the plane, saying, “I don’t know what the situation is.”

A woman who works at the airport and was hiding in the bushes between Terminal 3 and 4 — far from the site of Santiago’s attack — told a 911 dispatcher that she saw someone with a gun.

“Did you see the shooter?” the dispatcher asks.

“I saw him, but I don’t remember his face or anything,” the airport worker answers. “I just saw a big gun.”

It could be she saw one of hundreds of officers, some in plainclothes, who swarmed all four terminals as the reports of an active shooter came in.

Some calls came from outside the airport, as people reported being contacted by loved ones stuck inside.

A woman called 911 to say her mother — an airport cook — was hiding under a table at the airport and had called her crying, saying “some kind of people with guns are over there.”

The grown daughter wanted 911 to tell her what was going on, saying, “I’m going to drive to the airport.”

The operator urges her not to. “No, do not drive to the airport, there is a shooting at the airport!”

“Oh my!” the woman says, sobbing hysterically.

The dispatcher tries to sooth her, saying, “My best advice to you right now, is just to keep your mom in your prayers.”

“We’ve gotten calls from Terminals 1, 3 and 2. We’ve had multiple calls. Keep yourself locked inside, OK?” 911 operator responding to caller