John R. Houk
© January 10, 2017
On January 6, 2017 Esteban Santiago began randomly shooting
at peoples’ head strolling through the luggage area at a Ft. Lauderdale, FL
airport.
My first thought was that the incident was another Islamic
terrorist. Then I heard the perpetrator had a Hispanic name, ergo he might be
upset with Trump’s campaign to solidify the security of the southern border.
Then I heard Santiago was a National Guard vet that had experienced combat,
thus the airport shooting might have been PTSD related.
Alas, as of this writing, all my speculations are on the
table because Santiago’s jailers have not shared the conclusive motive. At this
point we bloggers and readers are left to make educated guesses based on the
data discovered by media journalists and enterprising investigative bloggers.
Here are some articles and/or excerpts for you to build a
motive.
JRH 1/10/17
*******************
Fort Lauderdale Gunman Said He Was “FORCED TO FIGHT FOR
ISIS”
January 6, 2017
Ft. Lauderdale shooter was
posting on jihadi forums when he was 17 years old in 2007. That twitter
account, @Esteban00903, is now closed.
Law
Enforcement sources told CBSNews that in Nov. 2016, he walked into an FBI
office in Anchorage, AK claiming he was being forced to fight for ISIS
The Fort Lauderdale gunman
was known to the FBI for four months prior to this massacre.
Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has been shutdown after a shooting
that left five people dead. Broward Sheriff’s deputies are working with the
FBI, trying to figure a motive for the shooting.
Broward
Commissioner Chip LaMarca told CBS4 the shooter was a passenger on a Canadian
flight with a checked gun. He says the shooter claimed his bag at the baggage
claim area then took the gun from his bag before going into a bathroom and
loading his weapon. He then reportedly came out of the bathroom and began
shooting people in the baggage claim area.
Law
Enforcement sources told CBSNews that in Nov. 2016, he walked into an FBI
office in Anchorage, AK claiming he was being forced to fight for ISIS but
was sent to a psychiatric hospital after Anchorage police were called. In 2011
or 2012, he was investigated for child porn. Three weapons and a computer were
seized but there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
Air
Canada took to Twitter to deny they had the accused gunman on the flight
saying, “We confirm we have no record of a passenger by the name Esteban
Santiago, or checked guns, on any of our flights to Fort Lauderdale.”
A law enforcement source
identifies the accused shooter as Esteban Santiago Ruiz, 26, of New Jersey.
Sources say he had a concealed weapons permit on him. The source added he had a
minor criminal history.
…
Is
ISIS Behind the Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting?
Heavy, January 6, 2017 Updated 3:51 pm EST, January 6,
2017 1 Comment By S.J. Prince
Is
the Islamic State the motivator for Esteban Santiago, the alleged
gunman of today’s attack at the baggage claim area of the
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport in Florida?
…
Is
it the Islamic State? As of now it is unconfirmed, but comparisons are being
made of today’s attack to the summer 2016 attack on Ataturk Airport in Turkey.
On June 28, three suicide bombers killed 45 people and injured more than 230.
However, ISIS never officially claimed the attack, reports CNN.
It
can also be noted that after today’s shooting, ISIS terrorist channels knew
Esteban’s name before some news corporations reported it. A U.S. senator gave
Esteban’s name out live on MSNBC. It is unclear if ISIS channels spread his
name before MSNBC. Esteban is now in custody.
+++
Fort Lauderdale Airport
shooter had told FBI he was forced to fight for the Islamic State
JANUARY 6, 2017 9:47
PM
And here he is in a photograph
making the one-finger sign that signifies belief in the Islamic concept of
tawhid, the absolute unity of the godhead.
He does appear to be mentally
ill, and so of course the establishment propaganda media is treating as if it
were solely a matter of a man who had mental health problems and snapped. But
there is no reason to hold to a hard-and-fast either/or in this case or other
cases where jihadis have been described as mentally ill. As Hugh Fitzgerald has
often noted, Islam attracts the psychically marginal, as it provides both a
justification and a purpose for their rage and bloodlust. The jury is still out
on Esteban Santiago, and we may never know the whole story if he is a jihadi,
since so many people are so intent on concealing such facts, but in any case
there is strong reason to believe that there is a jihad component here.
And why wasn’t the FBI
watching him, when he told them he was ISIS? Maybe they also assumed he was
insane, or they didn’t care to pursue such matters while Obama was busying
downplaying the Islamic State threat, or there are simply too many young men
out there like Esteban Santiago. And more are arriving all the time.
“Fort Lauderdale Airport
shooting suspect Esteban Santiago-Ruiz ‘told FBI he was forced to fight for
ISIS,'” by … READ ENTIRETY
+++
Federal prosecutors file
charges against Santiago, he could face the death penalty
January 08, 2017
The suspected killer in the
Ft. Lauderdale rampage, 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, was charged on Saturday
with performing an act of violence at an airport, which could earn him the
death penalty if he is convicted.
Santiago was charged with an
act of violence at an international airport resulting in death and weapons
charges.
Earlier, the FBI
announced that Santiago apparently traveled to the airport for the purpose
of carrying out the bloody rampage.
Santiago told investigators
that he planned the attack, buying a one-way ticket to the Fort Lauderdale
airport, a federal complaint said. Authorities don't know why he chose his
target and have not ruled out terrorism.
Terrorism may have been
a "potential motivation" for the attack on Friday that killed
five people, Special Agent in Charge George Piro said during
a news conference.
Later in the afternoon,
police in Alaska said they had returned a handgun to the Florida airport
shooting suspect which was temporarily taken from him when he underwent a
mental evaluation late last year, according to a Reuters report.
Anchorage Police Chief
Christopher Tolley said it was not immediately clear if it was the same gun
used in Friday's deadly rampage. Officials told a news conference the gun was
returned to the suspect because the Iraq war veteran had not committed a crime.
Why the gunman may have
chosen South Florida was unclear. He had no clear connection to the state aside
from relatives in the Naples area, a two-hour drive away, the Sun Sentinel reported.
…
The suspected shooter had a
history of mental health problems -- some of which followed his military
service in Iraq -- and was receiving psychological treatment at his home in
Alaska, his relatives said.
FBI investigators questioned
Santiago for hours. Piro said investigators were scouring the 26-year-old
suspect's social media footprint and looking into where he'd traveled before.
Santiago was not on any
no-fly list, according to the FBI. He allegedly carried out the attack with a 9
mm semi-automatic handgun, Piro added.
…
"Only thing I could tell
you was when he came out of Iraq, he wasn't feeling too good," Santiago's
uncle, Hernan Rivera, told The Record
newspaper.
Santiago deployed in 2010 as
part of the Puerto Rico National Guard, spending a year with an engineering battalion,
according to Guard spokesman Maj. Paul Dahlen.
In recent years, Santiago --
a new dad, family said -- had been living in Anchorage, Alaska, his brother,
Bryan Santiago, told The Associated Press from Puerto Rico. Bryan Santiago said
his brother's girlfriend had recently called the family to alert them to his
treatment.
In November, Esteban told FBI
agents in Alaska that the government was controlling his mind and was forcing
him to watch Islamic State group videos, a law enforcement official said. The
official was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and
spoke Friday on condition of anonymity.
The FBI agents notified the
police after the interview with Esteban Santiago, who took him in for a mental
health evaluation.
…
Esteban Santiago was born in
New Jersey but moved to Puerto Rico when he was 2, his brother said. He grew up
in the southern coastal town of Penuelas before joining the Guard in 2007.
Former neighbor Ursula
Candelario recalled seeing Esteban Santiago grow up and said people used to
salute him after he joined the Guard. "He was very peaceful, very
educated, very serious," she said. "We're in shock. I couldn't
believe it," said Candelario.
While in Iraq, Santiago
cleared roads of improvised explosive devices and at least two members of his
company were killed, spokesman Lt. Col. Candis Olmstead told The New York
Times. He was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
Since returning from Iraq,
Santiago served in the Army Reserves and the Alaska National Guard in
Anchorage, Olmstead told the AP. He was serving as a combat engineer in the
Guard before his discharge for "unsatisfactory performance," said Lt.
Col. Candis Olmstead, a spokeswoman. His military rank upon discharge was E3,
private 1st class, and he worked one weekend a month with an additional 15 days
of training yearly, Olmstead said.
She would not elaborate on
his discharge, but the Pentagon said he went AWOL several times and was demoted
and discharged.
Still, he'd had some
successes during his military career, being awarded a number of medals and
commendations including the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism
Service Medal.
…
"It was like he lost his
mind," she said in Spanish of his return from Iraq. "He said he saw
things."
…
Santiago was charged in a
domestic violence case in January 2016, damaging a door when he forced his way
into a bathroom at his girlfriend's Anchorage home. The woman told officers he
yelled at her to leave, choked her and smacked her on the side of the head,
according to charging documents.
A month later municipal
prosecutors said he violated the conditions of his release when officers found
him at her home during a routine check. He told police he had lived there since
he was released from custody the previous month. His Anchorage attorney, Max
Holmquist, declined to discuss his client.
+++
WHO GAVE AIRPORT SHOOTER
GUN BACK ... TWICE?
You won't believe the 'warning
shots' fired before attack
By January 7, 2017
WND EXCLUSIVE
WASHINGTON – The case of Esteban
Santiago, the 26-year-old shooter in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood
International Airport massacre, gets stranger by the minute.
He flew from Alaska without
checking any bags, other than the hard gun case he collected in baggage claim
and opened to kill five people while wounding six others.
He was already being
prosecuted for attacking his girlfriend and attempting to strangle her. He even
broke the terms of his release on that charge by entering her home again. But
he was allowed to keep his gun.
The FBI interviewed him in
November after his employer in Alaska expressed concerns about things he was
saying. He reportedly told the FBI he was being forced by the CIA to fight for
ISIS. While being evaluated, the FBI took his gun. But they released him and
gave it back after a psychiatric investigation that called for no followup and
no medication.
He served in Iraq for the
Army Reserves and the Alaska National Guard but was discharged for
“unsatisfactory performance.”
He registered on MySpace
under the name “Aashiq Hammad” and recorded Islamic religious music on the site
three years before he ever deployed to Iraq. In 2007 he was posting on an
explosives and weapons forum about mass-downloading Islamic terrorist
propaganda videos. He also downloaded three songs – one of them titled “La
ilaha illAllah,” which is Arabic for “There is no God but Allah” – the first
half of the Muslim declaration of faith, the Shahadah. He lived within walking
distance of Alaska’s only mosque.
…
Investigators say he was
planning the attack for some time – selling his possessions, including his car,
and posting comments that, authorities say, indicate an extended period of
preparation.
…
As a result of sheer federal
governmental incompetence, once again, Santiago AKA Asshiq Hammad, was able to
kill five and injure 6 in a shooting attack at the Florida airport Friday after
all those “warning shots.”
Santiago emptied three
magazines from his pistol, and then police ordered him to sit down, which he
did. Police never fired a shot.
+++
Florida airport shooting
suspect Esteban Santiago appears in federal court
By Reuters
9 January 2017 13.36 EST
…
He [Esteban Santiago] has
admitted to investigators that he planned Friday’s attack at Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport and bought a one-way ticket from his
home in Alaska to carry it out, according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities say they have not
ruled out terrorism as a motive and that they are investigating whether mental
illness played a role. In November, Santiago went to an FBI office in Anchorage
and told agents he believed US spies were controlling his mind.
Santiago spoke little during
the hearing, confirming to the US magistrate judge, Alicia Valle, that he
understood the charges, and that he was a US citizen. He said he did not have
his own lawyer, and he was assigned a federal public defender.
Asked about his employment,
Santiago said that for the last couple of years he had worked in Anchorage for
a company called Signal 88 Security, earning about $2,000 a month. He told the
court he had only $5 to $10 in his bank account.
Prosecutors called for
Santiago, who is being held at the Broward County jail in Fort Lauderdale, to
be denied bail, and Valle scheduled a 17 January hearing to discuss the
request. Legal experts have said it is very unlikely he will be released.
…
Anchorage’s police chief told
reporters on Saturday that Santiago reported at the time having “terroristic
thoughts” and believed he was being influenced by the Islamic State militant
group.
…
Santiago served from 2007 to
2016 in the Puerto Rico and Alaska national guards, including a deployment to
Iraq from 2010 to 2011, according to the Pentagon. Relatives have said he has
acted erratically since returning from Iraq.
+++
Florida airport shooting
suspect Esteban Santiago told maximum penalty is death
By Paula McMahon of Sun
Sentinel
January 9, 2017 1:45 PM
In court, Santiago did not
say anything about his alleged motive or why he came to South Florida.
He also said nothing, in
court, about his mental health or psychiatric diagnosis.
But Santiago told
authorities, after his arrest, that doctors told him he may have schizophrenia,
sources told the Sun Sentinel.
He said he was told that in
November during a mental health evalution [sic] he underwent after he sought
help from the FBI office in Anchorage, Alaska, the sources said.
People with schizophrenia may
"lose touch" with some aspects of reality, according to the National
Institute of Mental Health. Other possible symptoms include hallucinations,
delusions and unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking.
Agents said he reported that
he was having terroristic thoughts, believed the government was controlling his
mind and pushing him to watch Islamic State group propaganda videos.
…
Santiago was briefly
hospitalized in November after he walked into the FBI office in Anchorage and
asked for help, authorities said. He told agents the U.S. government was
controlling his mind and forcing him to watch Islamic State propaganda videos,
investigators said.
Authorities initially said he
had left his 2-month-old baby son and a gun in his vehicle outside the office
and brought in a magazine that contained ammunition. They later clarified that
the infant was safely in the care of the FBI. The infant's mother was called to
take custody of the baby and local police seized his gun and took him to a
local psychiatric hospital for treatment, they said.
Santiago's gun was returned
to him on Dec. 8, less than one month before the bloodshed in Fort Lauderdale,
investigators said.
Santiago was discharged from
the National Guard last year after being demoted for unsatisfactory
performance.
Family members said he was
hearing voices and was severely affected by seeing a bomb explode near two of
his friends when he served in Iraq. – READ ENTIRETY
+++
Of Interest
BREAKING VIDEO=> Security Cameras
Capture Esteban Santiago Gunning Down Innocents at FtL Airport – Gateway Pundit, 1/8/17 12:34 pm
Esteban Santiago: Gritty life on the Alaska
streets – Sun Sentinel,
1/8/17 11:01 PM
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