Disturbed Santiago lost job but kept his weapon

Airport shooter fired as guard

FORT LAUDERDALE — Esteban Santiago’s perceived mental imbalance caused him to lose his job as an unarmed security guard, but it didn’t prevent the government from returning his gun to him weeks later.

The Alaska man accused of shooting five to death at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was fired Nov. 15 from Signal 88 Security in Anchorage, newly released records from the Alaska Department of Public Safety show.

“Due to Esteban Santiago’s current documented mental illness affecting his judgment and reason, he is disqualified to be licensed as an unarmed security officer in the state of Alaska,” company owner William Serra wrote on an employee separation form.

About a week earlier, on

Nov. 7, Santiago had walked into the FBI office in Anchorage, appearing agitated and incoherent. He told agents he was having terroristic thoughts and believed he was being influenced by ISIS, according to an Anchorage Police Department report.

He had a Walther 9 mm pistol in his car. Santiago allowed police to confiscate the gun “to prevent it from being stolen” and officers escorted him to Providence Alaska Medical Center for a psychological evaluation.

He was then transferred to the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and released Nov. 14.

The following day, he was fired.

On Dec. 8, Anchorage Police returned Santiago’s firearm to him.

Santiago is accused of using that same gun to kill five at Fort Lauderdale’s airport on Jan. 6.

In a news conference the day after the shooting, law enforcement officials in Anchorage said they had no legal justification to keep the firearm in their custody any longer.

The U.S. Attorney for Alaska, Karen Loeffler, said Santiago had never been ruled mentally ill by a court and he had no criminal conviction that would have precluded him from recovering his gun.

Santiago had, however, pleaded no contest in March 2016 to criminal mischief and assault for an encounter earlier in the year with his girlfriend in which he’d forced his way into the bathroom, breaking the door, and hit the woman on the head, according to court files.

In return for the plea, prosecutors agreed to a “deferred prosecution” deal in which they would dismiss the case in March 2017 if Santiago obeyed all laws and stayed in touch with his attorney.

“I think he has good prospects for rehabilitation and hopefully he’ll not end up with any charges on his record as a result of this,” his attorney Max Holmquist told the judge.

On his July 2016 application to the state of Alaska to receive a security guard license, Santiago misstated the status of the matter, writing “DV January 15, 2016 no charge,” likely referring to “domestic violence.”

His only character reference: the girlfriend he was accused of assaulting.

The state granted the security guard license.

A spokesman for the Alaska Department of Public Safety told the Sun Sentinel that an individual must be convicted of a felony to be disqualified from receiving a security guard license.

Signal 88 notified the Alaska Department of Public Safety of Santiago’s firing after the agency inquired about him on the day of the airport shooting.

Signal 88 sent a completed employee separation form to the Alaska agency on Jan. 8.

A man answering the phone at the company declined comment Tuesday.

The Signal 88 executive wrote on the separation paper that Santiago could only be rehired if he got a “clean bill of mental fitness” from a doctor.