Santiago-Ruiz is from Anchorage, Alaska, and is an Army National Guard veteran who served in Iraq. His brother said he had been receiving psychological treatment recently.
Officials told the CBS Miami affiliate Esteban Santiago-Ruiz walked in to an Anchorage, Alaska, FBI office in November 2016, and claimed he was being forced to fight for ISIS. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
>>Fort Lauderdale airport shooter: Life had been unraveling for year>>
His family said Santiago-Ruiz, who had been in and out of the military for nearly a decade, started having problems after he returned from a tour in Iraq in 2011, his aunt Maria Ruiz told reporters for Northjersey.com.
On Dec. 14, 2007, he joined the Puerto Rico National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq from April 2010 to February 2011. He then joined the Army Reserves and in November 2014 joined the Alaska National Guard. He was kicked out in August 2016, according to the Alaska National Guard.
In January 2016, he was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors for a fight with his girlfriend, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.
According to a CBS Miami report, Santiago-Ruiz was investigated by Homeland Security for child porn approximately five years ago but was never prosecuted.
WHAT DID ESTEBAN SANTIAGO-RUIZ ALLEGEDLY DO AT THE AIRPORT?
Broward County, Florida Commissioner Chip LaMarca told multiple news outlets Santiago-Ruiz arrived in Fort Lauderdale on a flight from Alaska. In his baggage was a handgun that he’d checked in upon boarding. LaMarca said, “he claimed his bag, took the gun from the baggage, went into a bathroom and loaded the gun.”
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 #FLL 5/5
— Air Canada (@AirCanada) January 6, 2017
The local Reverend John Schlicher of St. Andrew Methodist Church in Beavercreek said the shooter stood in a main hallway connecting all the baggage carousels, and began firing at people's heads.
Schlicher said the gunman fired and reloaded several times. People around him were dropping to the ground in the baggage claim area. He, his wife and mother in law all dropped too to avoid bullets flying overhead.
A Broward Co. deputy said in a news conference the gunman was taken into custody without incident after he ran out of bullets and stopped shooting. Police never fired upon Santiago-Ruiz.
According to CBS Miami the gunman was found with an active military ID and is an American citizen, born in New Jersey. The station reported Santiago-Ruiz lived in Alaska and Puerto Rico.
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