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No One Took Charge After Fort Lauderdale Airport Shooting, Outside Review Finds

The 82-page review, prepared by a consulting firm hired by Broward County, said that the response to the shooting was "disjointed, misinformed and conflicting" due to the lack of information.

(TNS)— FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Coordination between airport and law enforcement officials was limited and it was not clear who was in charge of the response to the January shooting at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, according to an outside review of the incident released Tuesday.

The 82-page review, prepared by a consulting firm hired by Broward County, said that the response to the shooting was "disjointed, misinformed and conflicting" due to the lack of information.

Tasks that should have been left to airport officials were circumvented by the Broward Sheriff's Office, the report said. The airport's plans to care for and efficiently evacuate passengers were also lacking.

The findings in the review echoed issues identified in an internal Sheriff's Office evaluation and in a Sun Sentinel investigation. But it also included previously unreported information that highlighted self-induced breakdowns.

In one example, officials at Port Everglades were initially told they needed to accommodate 900 evacuees instead of the actual number of approximately 10,000. In another, the report said law enforcement officials held 22 planes on the tarmac for hours because they could have witnessed the shooting, instead of letting people off and holding them in a designated area.

County commissioners, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and Aviation Director Mark Gale discussed the report in a closed meeting Tuesday at the county's offices in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The review is the second county-led evaluation of the official response to the Jan. 6 shooting. Police say Esteban Santiago, then 26, opened fire in the airport's Terminal 2, leaving five people dead and six others wounded, after checking a gun on a flight from Alaska.

The incident was followed by panic in other terminals, as rumors of additional shooters led to stampedes onto the tarmac, where thousands of passengers and airport employees were stuck for hours, many without food, water or shelter.

A Sun Sentinel investigation found that law enforcement officers inadvertently fueled the reports of additional gunfire, by reporting on police radios they heard shots fired long after Santiago was in custody. It also found the airport's evacuation plans were inadequate, as about 700 people ended up spending the night at a makeshift rescue center at Port Everglades.

The county, which runs the airport, hired the consulting firm Ross & Baruzzini Inc. to review its handling of the shooting and the aftermath. The total cost of the review was not to exceed $314,000, according to an agreement finalized in March.

Airport officials declined to provide a draft copy of the report to the Sun Sentinel ahead of Tuesday's meeting.

The Sun Sentinel in June obtained a draft of the Sheriff's Office review of its own response to the shooting that criticized the aviation department's refusal to stop operations in Terminal 2 after the mass shooting, suggesting that they prioritized revenues over lives. It also said the aviation department did not understand that its role was to support the Sheriff's Office response to the incident.

Airport officials disputed the criticisms, saying Sheriff's Office officials did not interview them or discuss any aspects of the draft report before it was released, a spokesman said at the time.

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