By Paula McMahon
Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Accused airport shooter Esteban Santiago told investigators after his arrest that he communicated with Islamic State terrorists or sympathizers in “jihadi chat rooms” before he killed five people in Fort Lauderdale, authorities said in court Tuesday.
Whether that’s true is not clear. Prosecutors and agents are still combing through electronic devices Santiago may have used, looking for evidence to show whether he was radicalized and whether he actually visited those terrorist chat rooms and websites, law enforcement sources said.
Santiago’s statements to investigators were revealed during a court hearing Tuesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
Also during the hearing:
_Federal prosecutors said Santiago, 26, practiced firing his weapon at a gun range in Alaska in the months before the Jan. 6 attack at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
_Agents testified that the semi-automatic handgun Santiago used in the attack was the same weapon the Anchorage police department returned to him in December, after his stay in a psychiatric hospital.
_Santiago was not prescribed psychiatric drugs when leaving the hospital, despite his earlier complaints that the government was controlling his mind and he was hearing voices.
Santiago, who has not yet been formally charged, faces allegations that he fatally shot five people and injured six others on Jan. 6 at the Terminal 2 baggage claim area of the airport. If convicted of the most serious allegations, he could face the death penalty or life in federal prison.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow ruled that Santiago will remain jailed while the case is pending, after deciding that he might flee from justice and is a danger to the community.
“Much of the danger to the community (he presents) is on camera,” the judge said. “He’s facing either the death penalty or life if prison so he has no incentive to appear” in court if released.
Santiago is due back in court Jan. 30. He is on suicide watch, in solitary confinement, at the Broward County main jail.
Santiago barely spoke publicly in court Tuesday, just answering “yes” and “no” when the judge asked him a series of questions about whether he agreed with a request from the prosecution and defense to delay his next court appearance.
He wore a red maximum-security inmate jumpsuit and was handcuffed, shackled and surrounded by deputy U.S. marshals and courtroom security officers. He spoke in a low, inaudible voice to his lawyers, Robert Berube and Eric Cohen, who work for the Federal Public Defender’s Office.
“Mr. Santiago is prepared to remain in custody,” Berube told the judge.
After emptying two magazines of ammunition and “methodically” shooting people by aiming at their heads, Santiago dropped his gun, lay on the ground and made no attempt to escape before Broward sheriff’s deputies arrested him, prosecutor Ricardo Del Toro said in court.
“During the interview, the defendant admitted that he planned the attack,” Del Toro said. “He has admitted to all of the facts with respect to the terrible and tragic events of Jan. 6.”
“At various points ... he said he carried out the attack because of government mind control. But he later said he did so because of ISIL ... after participating in jihadi chat rooms,” Del Toro said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
Santiago was first interviewed by FBI agents and sheriff’s detectives in a law enforcement office in the airport in the hours after the rampage, prosecutors said. Later that night, he was brought to FBI headquarters in Miramar and questioned more.
Investigators said he spoke with them for a total of about six hours. The first few hours were audio recorded, and all but about 10 minutes of his interview at the FBI office was recorded on video, FBI Agent Michael Ferlazzo testified.
Santiago was born in New Jersey, grew up in Puerto Rico and served in the Iraq War before moving to Alaska. He also traveled to the United Kingdom in 2012, prosecutors said in court.
This past November, Santiago went to the FBI office in Anchorage and told agents the government was controlling his mind and he was being pushed to watch terrorist propaganda, prosecutors said.
Authorities said he asked for help on Nov. 6 and said he did not want to harm himself or anyone else.
Anchorage police confiscated Santiago’s gun, and he voluntarily agreed to go to a psychiatric hospital for treatment, though agents said there may have been some court order or proceeding before he agreed to treatment.
The agents testified that they believe Santiago spent about one day in Providence Alaska Medical Center and was transferred to Alaska Psychiatric Institute, where he spent about five days and was released Nov. 14 after he was “deemed to be stable.”
He was not prescribed psychiatric drugs while hospitalized or upon his release, just anti-anxiety medication and melatonin, an herbal supplement people use to help them sleep, agents said.
FBI agents met with Santiago again and interviewed him Nov. 30, when he went back to the Anchorage police department to try to pick up his gun, Ferlazzo testified under questioning by defense lawyer Berube.
No information has been released about that meeting, other than the FBI and Anchorage police saying Santiago left that day without his gun. Anchorage police eventually returned the gun to him Dec. 8, they said.
Agents testified that Santiago’s gun was legally purchased and was legally licensed, as far as they know, in Alaska.
Prosecutor Del Toro told the judge that the five people killed were between ages 57 and 84, and the six people who suffered gunshot wounds were between ages 40 and 70.
Investigators said they have video footage from about 20 cameras that recorded Santiago or aspects of the mass shooting at the airport. Santiago does not appear on footage from all of those cameras, but agents said they captured most of his movements in the airport.
There is no video of him on the sidewalk outside the baggage claim area, they testified, though agents wrote in court records that he briefly walked outside during the shootings.
If prosecutors formally decide to seek the death penalty for Santiago, that would slow down the case, experts said. U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer and his advisers would have to make an initial decision, which would reviewed by a U.S. Department of Justice panel, before a final decision by the U.S. attorney general.
If Santiago wants to plead guilty, and is found legally competent to do so, that could take the death penalty off the table, legal experts said, though prosecutors could still insist on going to trial. The defense has not asked for Santiago to undergo a psychiatric evaluation or legal competency testing, according to court records, but that it is likely to be ordered.
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(c)2017 Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)