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Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:08
  Disprushing. On January sixth, twenty seventeen, a man exited the bathroom near
• 0:42
  a baggage claim at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida,
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  and he opened fire. He had a semi automatic nine millimeter handgun and
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  two clips with him, and he emptied both of these clips before he hit
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  the ground, killing five and injuring six more people in the absolute chaos that
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  broke out during the attack. Another thirty six people were injured trying to escape
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  the stampeding crowds who were dashing for exits and looking for cover. The shooting
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  was a terrifying shock for the whole country, and perhaps even more so for
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  the family and friends of Esteban Santiago Ruiz. Esteban was born on March sixteenth,
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  nineteen ninety in New Jersey, but he and his family moved to Puerto
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  Rico when he was only two years old. He spent most of his life
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  there and even joined the Puerto Rico National Guard. He was quiet but well
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  respected. His neighbors used to salute him when they passed him on the streets.
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  In twenty ten, Esteban was deployed to Iraq as a combat engineer,
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  where he cleared roadside bombs and repaired bridges, but he returned from service a
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  changed man. The sudden and drastic change in his demeanor reportedly stemmed from the
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  time he watched a bomb go off near two of his friends in Iraq,
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  an event that those who knew Esteban said stayed with him long after he'd come
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  home. In twenty fourteen, he seemed to get a much needed fresh start
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  when he and his brother moved to Anchorage, Alaska. Esteban joined the National
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  Guard there, and he even met a woman and had a child together.
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  When Esteban's brother moved away from Anchorage, Esteban was a new father and lived
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  in a small but nice apartment with his young family. On the surface,
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  things only seemed to be changing for Esteban for the better, but by twenty
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  sixteen everything had changed all over again. Esteban had gone from a private to
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  the National Guard who had ten awards from his times in service, to a
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  belligerent, troubled man who seemed to be getting more and more violent. He
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  left that small but nice apartment and Anchorage after an alleged attack when he reportedly
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  tried to strangle the mother of his child. From there, he moved into
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  a hotel known for attracting all the wrong sorts of people, and only continued
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  to decline. Neighbors would wake up to Estebon screaming and shouting out of his
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  window in the middle of the night. Sometimes they would find him having arguments
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  with himself in the car park between the motel and the liquor store across the
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  street. He'd just be talking to himself, screaming, as if he was
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  having a battle with himself. Naomi Harden, the clerk at that liquor store,
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  told the press Estebon himself seemed to feel that something was going horribly wrong.
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  He walked into an FBI office and anchorage and told the staff there that
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  he was hearing voices. These voices, he claimed, came from the United
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  States government, and they wanted him to do things. Sometimes they just ordered
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  him to commit violent acts. Sometimes they wanted him to infiltrate ISIS chat rooms
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  and gather intel on terrorists. Those working at the FBI were understandably a little
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  on edge with Esteban's strange confession, especially because he came to the office carrying
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  his infant child. They sent him to a psychiatrist and confiscated the gun that
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  Esteban had to permit for as they waited for the results of his examination.
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  After treatment, the psychiatrist determined that Esteban was mentally fine, and he was
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  discharged. After a further investigation, Anchorage authorities discovered that Esteban had no ties
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  or links to terrorism and he had not broken the law. They then returned
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  his gun to him, but as a result of his deteriorating mental health and
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  increasingly violent outbursts, Esteban lost his last tether to reality. He was fired
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  from his job as a security guard, which was how he'd been earning a
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  living. After being discharged from the Alaska National Guard, Esteban was now officially
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  cut loose. Only a few months later, he booked a one way flight
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  to Florida and alerted the airport that he would be bringing his gun with him.
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  The permit for his weapon was valid, and he was free to bring
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  the gun as long as he declared it and had packed it in his check
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  in luggage in a secure case. Esteban followed airport procedures to the te He
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  even had a military ID on him. The day of his travels to further
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  ease any concerns that staff may have on the other side of his flight,
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  Esteban retrieved his luggage at Fort Lauderdale Airport and went into the bathroom. There,
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  he unlocked the case, put the clip in his gun, and burst
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  out of the room. By his own account, he then started firing at
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  the first people he encountered. The shooting only lasted for about seventy five seconds,
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  but Esteban managed to empty both of his clips. He then laid down
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  on the floor near the baggage claim and waited to be arrested. It took
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  only eighty five seconds from the start of Esteban opening fire to him being detained,
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  and once law enforcement had him, his confession started almost right away.
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  He told the arresting officers a now chillingly familiar version of events. Esteban said
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  that he was being mind controlled by the American government who wanted him to infiltrate
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  online terrorist chat rooms. He couldn't give a clear motive for his attack on
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  the airport or the innocent victims that were there at the time, and as
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  the anchorage authorities had already determined, Esteban had nothing to do with online terrorists.
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  He did, however, later confirm that the gun he'd used in the
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  shooting was the very same gun that the Anchorage authorities had returned to him back
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  in twenty sixteen. After his arrest, Esteban was diagnosed as a schizophrenic.
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  Had this been picked up on during his treatment in twenty sixteen, he would
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  have lost his permit to carry a weapon, meaning that this attack could have
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  possibly been entirely avoided. He improved enough after treatment to be found competent to
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  stand trial, where his attorneys pleaded guilty on his behalf to avoid a potential
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  death sentence. Instead, Esteban was given five consecutive life sentences with an additional
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  one hundred twenty years to serve in prison, essentially meaning that he will never
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  be released again. From prison. Shut down, all roads in and out
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  closed. There are tens of thousands of passengers who are being told to still
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  remain here and shelter in place, and many of them are panicked and anxious
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  even now after witnessing the horrific deaths here. Just before one PM's passengers gathered
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  in baggage claim in terminal two shots fired, a chaotic and horrific scene.
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  Bags scattered, freightened passengers and airport workers streaming out, gathering on the tarmac.
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  Officials responding within minutes national your CFS kamarad incedence of being worked on at
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  this time on technical Channel one on a treminal time mesh casually incident. One
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  witness told us the shooter was relentless. He continued firing at and I know
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  that at one point he stopped and reloaded and continued firing again. The Wexler
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  family were headed home to Denver after a Caribbean cruise. He looked down the
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  end of the terminal and started seeing people running. Figured it might be a
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  good idea to get out of there. When it was over, eight wounded,
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  five dead, Broward County swat teams, deputies and the FBI swarmed the
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  area immediately looking for the suspect, apprehending him shortly after. Twenty six year
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  old Estaban Santiago his route. He flew on Delta Airlines from Anchorage to Minneapolis
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  and on to Fort Lauderdale, nine hours in the air. The weapon he
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  used in the attack was in his checked luggage, according to witnesses. After
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  he got his luggage, he then got the gun loaded in a bathroom and
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  began shooting without saying a word. He allegedly reloaded several times. Once he
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  ran out of bullets, he allegedly put the gun down and got down on
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  the floor, waiting for authorities. We have the shooter in custody. He's
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  unharmed. No law enforcement fired any shots. The subject is being interviewed by
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  a team of FBI agents. And around two thirty more chaos panic in another
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  terminal, Terminal one, as passengers there thought they heard more shots, authorities
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  telling them to evacuate. Also to evacuate Terminal two. People ran outside,
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  falling in the rush to get away, Others like Callie Hazel Grove, hiding
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  as as she could. There was another shooting and fleeing head behind something like
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  this. Listen to the airport for a while, and then we realized everyone
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  else responds and we ran outside. Those already outside running and crouching taking cover
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  behind cars. Around the same time, reports of a suspicious person in a
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  parking garage nearby. You would later turn out nothing was going on in the
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  garage and there were no shots fired in Terminal one. Meanwhile, a complete
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  ground stoppage on all flights in and out of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood International Airport,
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  Broward County. Homicide detectives in the FBI are right now interviewing the suspect.
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  It's unclear if he's answering any of their questions. The leading question,
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  of course, why that's ten minute murder for today, brief and binge able
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  true crime. I'm Joe the host, and I really appreciate you listening today.
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• 10:54
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• 10:58
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• 11:03
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• 11:16
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