Judge gives life sentence for Florida airport shooting
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Calling his mass shooting “85 second of evil,” a federal judge Friday sentenced Esteban Santiago to life in prison for killing five travelers and injuring five other people at a Fort Lauderdale airport last year.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom read off the names of all 11 victims and described their lives before imposing five consecutive life sentences for those who were murdered along with an additional 120 years in prison for those wounded in the shooting massacre at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Jan. 6, 2017. Esteban, who had flown from Anchorage, Alaska, to Fort Lauderdale, carried out the attack in one minute and 25 seconds before surrendering to a Broward County deputy sheriff at the airport.
Santiago, a 28-year-old Iraq war veteran with mental health problems, said nothing during his sentencing hearing. But a handful of the airport shooting’s survivors and victims’ family members spoke poignantly about the searing loss and maiming of loved ones, all of whom were elderly.
