A group of 200 people, many from Wallaceburg, were at the Fort Lauderdale airport last week when a lone gunman opened fire in the baggage claim area.
Wallaceburg’s Kristy Simpson-Nagy told the Sydenham Current a large group of her family traveled to the Sunshine State on Friday morning.
“They collected their luggage and stepped outside the airport and were waiting at the curb to get cabs to their resort,” she said.
“As they were waiting that’s when the shooting started… just after they walked out.”
Simpson-Nagy said her mother told her the group didn’t know what had happened initially.
“As they were driving away, they saw all the first responders heading to the airport and wondered what was going on,” she said.
“Then it came on the radio what had happened. They were in shock. The people in the town were very upset. My Mom said all you could hear at the resort was sirens and helicopters flying overhead. They were all so happy to be safe but felt terrible over what had happened.”
Simpson-Nagy said of the 200 plus people heading to Florida for a cruise, 16 of them were members of her family.
“I talked to my Mom about an hour later,” she said.
“My sister called me upset, that’s how I learned about the shooting.”
Wallaceburg’s Ryan Marcolin, whose family was travelling with the same group, told the Sydenham Current his parents, brothers and aunts and uncles heard about the shootings while heading to their hotel.
“I guess they were just getting into their cab when everything happened,” he said. “They could see police and ambulances arriving. They heard what had happened on the radio in the cab.”
In total, five people were killed in the shootings and six others were injured.
Police arrested the shooting suspect at the scene, Esteban Santiago, 26, who was currently living in Alaska.
He had served in the US Army Reserve and the Alaska Army National Guard and he also completed a 10-month tour of Iraq from 2010 to 2011, reports say.
Santiago is set to be formally charged today with causing serious bodily injury to someone at an international airport, using a firearm during and in relation to a violent crime and causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm.
– Photo credit: Broward Sheriff’s Office
