Esteban Santiago (born March 1990) was a Puerto Rican-American man who, on 6 January 2017, killed 5 people and injured over 8 in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Santiago claimed that the CIA had brainwashed him into watching Islamic State videos, the supposed motive for the attack.
Biography[]
Esteban Santiago was born in New Jersey in 1990 to a family of Puerto Rican descent, and he was believed to have had mental issues by his family. Santiago served in the Puerto Rico National Guard during the Iraq War, fighting in Iraq in 2010 and 2011 as a combat engineer. Santiago moved to Alaska after leaving the army in 2014, and he had a girlfriend and child there. Santiago was accused of domestic abuse and watching child porn, and he walked into an FBI office in Anchorage, Alaska in November 2016, claiming that the CIA had brainwashed him into watching Islamic State videos and radicalizing him in the process. On 6 January 2017, Santiago arrived at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida after flying in from Canada, carrying a military ID; this let him carry a gun. He loaded it in the bathroom, and he proceeded to shoot thirteen random people in the airport, possibly experiencing Iraq War flashbacks (as his brother claimed). He killed 5 people and wounded over 8 in the attack, and he was arrested. His trial took place on January 30, 2017. On April 2017, there was no proof of terrorism in the attack. On March 2018, he pleaded not guilty. On May 23, 2018, he pleaded guilty to the shooting. On 17 August 2018, he was sentenced to life in prison.