Eighty five seconds. That's how long it took for police to apprehend Esteban Santiago after he fired his first shot at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport on January 6th, according to a new preliminary report released by the Broward Sheriffs Office.
The 99-page report also states law enforcement could've done a better job responding to what happened the hours following the shooting, possibly preventing the "hysteria" and "panic" that occurred.
More than 2,000 officers responded to the packed airport, which created an impassable "parking lot" of police cars outside. Despite having a unified a command center set up, staging its areas were set up "on the fly" throughout the area and airport officials wouldn't let SWAT members view blueprints of the airport, the report says.
The report also revealed that witnesses were held in an area where they could see the bodies of the five killed -- which "further traumatized the victims."
Perhaps the biggest failure highlighted in the report was the County's 30-year-old radio system, which crashed repeatedly. So many officers were on it, crucial words were not being transmitted. For example, instead of "confirm shots fired" being heard on the radio, it was transmitted as "shots fired."
In fact, there were more than a dozen calls of possible shots fired long after Santiago was taken into custody. The report shows federal agents running around with guns in plain clothes also "added to the hysteria."
The report suggests a number of new training techniques for law enforcement throughout the area.
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The report was a preliminary draft released by the Broward Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Scott Israel said he will comment once the report is finalized and he has fully reviewed it.
