Federal prosecutor formally charged the prime suspect in the shooting rampage at Lauderdale Airport in South Florida on Jan.6, Esteban Santiago, with murder. The indictment was released Thursday, Jan. 26 and charged him on total 22 counts of the criminal complaint including five murders.
The Department of Justice released a statement regarding the indictment as quoted by CNN. The 26-year-old Esteban Santiago was charged with 11 counts of acts of violence that caused the death and serious body injury, six counts of the violent crime related to use and discharge of a firearm, and five counts of causing death to a person with a firearm.
The authorities said that Santiago confessed to his shooting and he is held without bond. He will be summoned before the judge on Monday, Jan. 30, by U.S. Magistrate in Fort Lauderdale Judge Barry L. Seltzer.
In the federal indictment, as reported by USA Today, the federal grand jury accused him of open firing and randomly killing five people at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. As he committed the crime, the federal indictment described that he aimed his gun at the head and body of the victims until he ran out of the ammunition. Esteban was using the Walther 6mm pistol for his crime.
Esteban, who lived in Alaska, told the FBI that he was doing his act on behalf of ISIS. However, during the investigation with federal agent in Alaska, he didn't mention anything about ISIS. Only when he was transferred to Florida to be questioned by the FBI agent in Miramar, Florida, that he claimed that he fought for ISIS.
He was born in New Jersey and served in National Guards for years. He was in Alaska to undergo a treatment for a serious mental health problem.
Watch the report from theABC News regarding his appearance in the court below:
