Ft Lauderdale attack not an amateur event

Shots fired, five dead at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

A gunman opened fire inside a baggage claim area of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday afternoon, killing five people and injuring eight more before police arrested him, the Broward Sheriff’s Office reported.

About an hour after the shooting, a second incident occurred at a different terminal of the airport, causing panic and sending dozens of passengers fleeing across the tarmac as police in armored gear responded with drawn weapons. Police and passengers at the terminal took cover behind parked cars.

BSO said in a Twitter post that one subject was in custody, but police did not identify the individual. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said on MSNBC that the shooter is named Esteban Santiago and that the man was carrying a military identification.

"First reports are always wrong." As I write, the cable news channels are covering this almost exclusively, live. The airport is being evacuated and reports are that there is at least one other gunman at large and apparently still active.

Mark Lea, who said he was a witness to the shootings, told MSNBC that the shooter was a man, wearing a Star Wars T-shirt, and that he walked into the baggage claim area of Terminal 2 and opened fire with a single handgun.

Lea said the man said nothing as we he went through three magazines before giving up and sprawling spread-eagle on the flood as a police officer took him into custody.

“He had no intention of escaping,” Lea told MSNBC.

But who is the other shooter, and in fact is there really another shooter? As is always the case in events like this, which are so sadly no longer rare, what we think we know now will turn out to be incorrect in whole or part.

But from reports, this was not an amateur hour at the airport. Mark Lea's account is does not describe a suspect who acted tentatively or uncertainly. His actions are those of a planned attack, indeed, a practically rehearsed one.

If there is a second gunman, which has not been confirmed, then what are the odds that two men, quite independent of each other, would decide to shot up the same airport at the same time? Zip, nada, nil.

But this is very bad, no matter how it turns out.

Update: Santiago is reported to have received a general discharge from the Alaska Army National Guard. A general discharge is a lesser one than an honorable discharge but is considered to be "under honorable conditions," as the Fort Hood Sentinel explains:

[A] “General, Under Honorable Conditions” Discharge (commonly referred to as a General Discharge) is for service members whose service was satisfactory, but involved situations where the Soldier’s conduct and/or performance of duty were not so meritorious to warrant an Honorable Discharge. Recipients of General Discharges usually have engaged in minor misconduct or have received nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, UCMJ. While the “under honorable conditions” terminology is slightly confusing, there is a clear disadvantage to receiving a General Discharge in contrast to an Honorable Discharge. While recipients of a General Discharge will receive entitlement to benefits such as VA medical and dental services, VA home loans and burial in national cemeteries, they will not receive educational benefits under either the Montgomery or Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Santiago's brother is reported to have told media that Santiago was grappling with "mental issues," but the brother said he did not know what they were.

Santiago was reported to have arrived at the airport on an Air Canada flight, with a firearm and ammunition in his checked baggage (which is legal to do). Presumably, after receiving is baggage he went somewhere, locked and loaded, and started shooting. However, Air Canada has stated that no passenger named Esteban Santiago is recorded on any Air Canada flight, nor was any firearm and ammunition declared and checked on its flights.

A statement from a Florida official that the shooter had traveled to Florida on a Canadian flight sent officials in Ottawa scrambling, but Global Affairs Canada said the shooter had not been a passenger on any Canadian flight, and the plane on which the gunman arrived did not originate in Canada. ...

Air Canada and WestJet, which service Fort Lauderdale, said they had no record of any passenger with the name of the suspect or of any checked guns on any of their Friday’s flights to the U.S. city.

Link.