FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ A shooter opened fire inside a baggage claim area of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday afternoon, killing five people and injuring eight more before police arrested him, the Broward Sheriff's Office reported.
About an hour after the shooting, another incident occurred at a separate terminal of the airport, causing panic and sending passengers fleeing across the tarmac as police in armored gear responded with drawn weapons.
The sheriff's office said in a Twitter post that one subject was in custody, but police did not identify the individual. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said on MSNBC that the shooter is named Esteban Santiago.
Police reported receiving a call that shots were fired at the airport at 12:55 p.m. The shooting caused passengers to flee the baggage claim area and brought the airport to a standstill as flights were temporarily grounded and roads around the airport were closed to traffic.
As security tightened around the airport and Miami International Airport, federal officials said the FBI was sending a terrorism task to investigate the shooting in Fort Lauderdale. But there was no indication yet that the incident is related to terrorism.
Mike Leverock, an FBI spokesman, said agents were working with local authorities in response to the shooting.
The shooting appears to have taken place inside the baggage claim area in the airport's Terminal 2, according to a tweet from the airport. The tweet did not provide further details.
A later post reported that "All services are temporarily suspended" at the airport, though the upper level of the airport remained open. And the Federal Aviation Administration reported "minimal impact to flights" at the airport.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told the Miami Herald that flights were still landing at the airport, though they were temporarily being held out from reaching any gates.
Eyewitnesses at the airport began to post photos and other messages on Twitter shortly after the shooting, including one image that showed a person shot and bleeding while seated in a corner outside the terminal.
Mark Lea, who said he was a witness to the shootings, told MSNBC that the shooter was a man, wearing a Star Wars T-shirt, and that he walked into the baggage claim area of Terminal 2 and opened fire with a single handgun.
Lea said the man said nothing as we he went through three magazines before giving up and sprawling spread-eagle on the flood as a police officer took him into custody.
"He had no intention of escaping," Lea told MSNBC.
Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked for President George W. Bush, tweeted that he was at the airport and "shots have been fired. Everyone is running."
Fleischer later tweeted that "all seems calm now but the police aren't letting anyone out of the airport."
Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief told CNN that it was a "lone shooter" who is now in custody.
"We have no evidence at this time that he was acting with anyone else," she said.
"We are still investigating, but we have activated our airport emergency operations center," she added.
The Fort Lauderdale airport, which does not have its own police force and relies on the sheriff's office for law enforcement, handles about 800 flights a day and 25 million passengers a year. In 2014, the Transportation Security Administration reported making 49 gun seizures at the Fort Lauderdale airport _ tied with Tampa International Airport for the seventh most gun seizures in the nation.
In the wake of the shooting news, Miami-Dade officials said they beefed up security at MIA and PortMiami, its two main travel hubs. County spokesman Michael Hernandez said "out of an abundance of caution" the county was instituting "enhanced" security at both county-owned facilities.
