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Esteban Santiago’s Photo From Naples And New Jersey: Shooter Killed Five At Ft. Lauderdale Airport

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 07:35 PST, Jan 6, 2017

Now that the name Esteban Santiago has been released as either the sole shooter or one of the shooters at Fort Lauderdale’s Hollywood Airport on Friday, January 6, the hunt is on for photos of Esteban — or for the correct social media pages related to Santiago — in order to determine a motive for the shooting. As seen on Twitter, there are plenty of accounts with the name Esteban Santiago. However, there are photos being published onto social media, with one man claiming to be Esteban being led away by police.

Twitter’s photo page is filling with photos that purport to be the 26-year-old Esteban, but they have not been confirmed.

The search for photos of Esteban has already led people to pontificate about his race and motives, with witnesses telling ABC News that Santiago reportedly shouted that he wasn’t Jewish.

As seen in the below tweet from CBS News, Esteban has been identified as the 26-year-old shooter, with reports that Santiago is in custody. However, rumors that Esteban himself was shot prior to being taken into custody were debunked during a press conference. Santiago had a military ID, but authorities are still determining if Esteban’s military ID is valid or not.

As seen in the following photo from the Mirror, a photo of Esteban being taken away by authorities in Fort Lauderdale has been published. However, that photo of Santiago is very blurry and only shows him from behind and not his face. According to the publication, Esteban was wearing a Star Wars T-shirt.

The top photo above shows people in Fort Lauderdale as they stood outside on the tarmac at the international airport in Fort Lauderdale. There were criticisms about the panic that ensued in the wake of the shooting that caused people to run in many directions without a system of evacuation that made it easy for people to figure out what to do in the midst of the tragedy. After people had been evacuated onto the tarmac, certain people were let back inside, but before long, unconfirmed reports of more shooting sent people back out onto the tarmac.

Graphic videos like the ones below show what happened right after the shooting.

Warning: The below videos may be disturbing.

Erik Whiteside got off of his plane and saw people running after the shooting, Erik told CNN, as he and his family hid behind luggage. The news network also reported that one man’s college friend was saved by a bullet hitting the laptop in his backpack. Other stories of a second shooter being bandied about were causing panic. Dwayne Dickerson was huddled in a supply closet with other people when he spoke with CNN, telling the news network that he jumped over a counter inside the airport when the shooting began. Dwayne said he tried to ask a Delta agent where the nearest exit was located, but Dickerson said the woman was frozen in fear.

On Twitter, the name Esteban Santiago has gained nearly 9,000 tweets. On Facebook, Esteban’s name has more than 83,000 people talking — and at least one man with the same name is getting a load of comments on his Facebook account, with folks wondering if that is the same Santiago who was the Fort Lauderdale shooter. There are plenty of people with the same name as Esteban on Facebook, with fewer still that hail from Fort Lauderdale, though it hasn’t been confirmed if the shooter traveled to the airport from another location or if he was from the area. The most recent reports claim Santiago may have lived in Naples but was originally from New Jersey.

The shooting has brought up a debate over unsecured areas at airports. It has also brought up a debate about social media jumping on all the “Esteban Santiago” photos they can find prior to police confirming that the shooter wasn’t carrying a stolen ID or his own.

[Featured Image by NBC TV Local10/AP Images]

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