FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla._Airport officials are investigating how video obtained by TMZ.com purporting to show the first shots fired by Esteban Santiago at the Fort Lauderdale airport has emerged, Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief said Sunday.
The video shows a man pulling a black handgun from his pants and firing it while walking through what appears to be the baggage pickup area at Fort Lauderdale airport.
Sharief said it appears to be a cellphone recording of security video.
The "footage was being played in a secure room for only people with certain security clearances," Sharief said. She is concerned that whoever released the video did it to make money.
"Nobody gives TMZ a video for free. You ever heard of that?" Sharief said.
A February article in the New Yorker magazine revealed how TMZ pays thousands of dollars to land exclusives, going as high as $80,000 for video of a 15-year-old Justin Bieber using racially insensitive language while singing "One Less Lonely Girl" a cappella.
Sharief said airport executives, with federal and local authorities, are investigating who had access to the video and recorded it, "because it's a crime to do that."
Broward Sheriff Scott Israel had no comment on the TMZ video.
Israel said the FBI is leading the investigation. "Anything that's released or not released will be up to the FBI," Israel said.
FBI officials said they were aware of the video but were not prepared to confirm or deny its authenticity.
