way to fort lauderdale. in fact, perhaps he is already there to be briefed by law enforcement. our team in washington reporting to federal authorities that they were brought in on this. of course, the immediate concern is that this could be something larger and perhaps some sort of terror plot. particularly given the time of year and the kind of warnings that we have been reporting right here. our senior justice correspondent pierre thomas with us now from washington. pierre, you had been reporting extensively leading up to the holidays about fears about not only lone wolves in this country, but the soft targets. >> absolutely, david. the situation is, as you have been describing, there are so many soft targets from malls to airports, and law enforcement has been more concerned about not the sophisticated attack, involving layers of people, but they've been concerned about lone wolves, and they can be in many different forms. they can be the mentally disturbed person. it could be the terrorist

person. it could be someone who has a domestic grievance that we talked about. law enforcement officials i've been talking about and talking to in recent days have repeatedly made the point that there's such easy access to weapons and so many different targets that it's impossible to guard them all. there are many different motives that people will have to want to harm people, but the holiday season and this particular one because of what we have seen happen overseas and we just had that incident in ohio and ohio state where someone tried to run over people with a vehicle and shoot people, law enforcement has been very sensitive to the notion that a single person where they might not get any heads up could show up somewhere and do this kind of horrific act. >> it's also coming at a time of the transfer of power in this country. certainly the white house, no doubt, has been read in on this immediately, and it's not lost us on the president-elect donald trump being briefed today too by top members of intelligence in this country.

the fbi and the cia among other agencies. we believe that meeting is at trump tower, and while they're talking about other issues, including the russian hacking story we've beenotology for quite some time, this is the kind of domestic incident that, sadly, he is going to take a look today and very quickly learn with his team that he will be meeting with today how you respond in situations like this and, unfortunately, as we move forward. >> he is now at the point where he learns right away just as the president does in the white house what's involved here, what's known, if they have a name, if senator nelson is correct, this is a person with a military background. they'll know fairly quickly what's going on here, what drove this person, what's his background. it is remarkable, though small comfort, arkabremarkable that 1 people were hit. five died. eight injured. a person with a semiautomatic weapon, a large clip, in an area with a dozen scores of people picking up their bags, you know, he was stopped rather quickly

and the death toll could have been a lot worse. >> we just wait to find out the details of who or how many people actually helped stop whoever this was, but i want to pick up on a point you just made. if i could bring in colonel gander again. when you hear reports that this gunman had a military id on them and was perhaps wearing a uniform, what does that tell you? >> yeah, david. this is -- as brian said, this will be pretty easy to id and we can get to the bottom of this pretty quicklying. though do not want to stand out. they try to blend in and conduct their attacks. the real key here is we see this more in domestic terrorism where people come in and shoot things up wearing uniforms. that's a bit different. one point here, it's interesting that there is some sort of comment about i'm not jewish. while the people of israel live with terror every day, isis and

aq have been focused more on anti-west terrorism, and it hasn't been specifically anti-jewish terrorism. a lot of things that don't make sense here right now. >> colonel and some of the immediate questions that will be asked by both local law enforcement there on the scene, but federal investigators who no doubt have descended on the scene at fort lauderdale airport this afternoon. >> thoughts and prayers for all. we are joined by senator bill nelson on the phone, and, nor nelson, thank you for being here. i believe that you were the one who first offered the information of the military id. what more can you tell us, senator?

his name is esteban santiago, and other than that the items that be have been reporting are correct. i think it illustrates when you get people bunched up in an area such as baggage claim or outside of the ticket counters, it's a soft target, and it's an easy target. that's what happened in germany. because of what happened in germany about a year ago, outside the ticket counter, and the security lines, we have doubled the number of viper teams in the faa bill, which is the dog teams.

>> the suspect was taken away alive and did have military id. the name associated with the idesteban santiago. we'll continue to do more reporting on that in the meantime. what more can you tell us about what transpired? what have you learned from authorities about the initial moments? did the gunman walk into baggage claim? what can you share with us? >> i think the reports that you have been getting are about as complete as anyone has and certainly me. i want to know what the airport needs, and i'll tell you, i spoke to the airport director dale, and they seem to have their act together. they started operations again to minimize the disruption and lo and behold, just a moment ago on

a screen, looked like there was some other disturbance there. i don't have that information. >> senator, that would help us understand one of our eyewitnesss who was on the phone as well who said she had to go because they were asking them to get down and whether or not that means there was another incident or, in fact, they were doing some sort of sweep, but you are looking at pictures right now. senator bill nelson with us. stay with us here for our breaking coverage here. we do appreciate the information that you have just been able to offer to us, and we agree with you that it would appear to be swift action by authorities there. we're now looking at people moving very quickly on the tarmac there at fort lauderdale airport, and are these live pictures coming in or are these moments ago? moments ago the control room is telling me. what's unclear is whether or not this is, you know, additional reaction to anything that might be transpierg or whether these pictures were from before because we do know that people who were actually in the terminal who were beyond the security checkpoint, who were waiting for their flights, they,

too, some of them, were brought down stairwells and on to the tarmac where they were joining with people who were deplaned as well. there were hundreds of people brought down to the tarmac for quite some time. they were standing in large groups as this transpired. we're joined now by our producer who is right there outside fort lauderdale airport on the scene for us. what do you see? what can you describe for us? >> well, trying to make sense of the situation. right now i'm between terminal one and two, and about 15 minutes ago you saw large police activity run from the terminal towards the parking garages. they were telling people get low, get low. at this time we're seeing police climbingup stairs, guns drawn. they're continuing to attorney general people get low. . every we're seeing with people with suitcases trying to catch flights. hunkering underneath staircases in the parking garages. it looks like police at this time are going floor to floor. the airport is right now completely frozen.

every car that was seemingly moving is standing still. police are ringing the various terminals, and we're still trying to find out what may have transpired to spur this on. >> producer with aibs news there on the scene at fort lauderdale airport. we had been hypothesiz iing -- do know that the shooter is in custody. eyewitnesss telling us that the shooter was in some form of a uniform, was carrying obviously what the eyewitness described as some form of a long gun. one person said that they heard the shooter saying, you know, i am not jewish. we heard from senator bill nelson of florida a moment ago who reported that the suspect did, in fact, have a military id. while on air the senator did tell us that the name attached

to the id is esteban santiago. we cannot confirm whether or not that is the person. we simply know that's the name that's been offered up to us by senator nelson and, brooiian, i sure immediately as you pointed out earlier, they're going to check the fingerprints of the suspect, and they'll know almost immediately who they're dealing where. >> they will, and i think the first question to him will be are there others? what do have you in mind? do you have explosives hidden? that will be important for authorities in terms of determining whether this was a lone actor or there was a plan b or plan c that fell in behind? >> these are the questions you have to ask, chief brown. >> yes, you have to ask these questions and you have to roll back the airport surveillance video. that may be happening now. you are rolling back in time looking at the airport video, which you see outside the baggage claim. there's a lot of video cameras at airports right outside baggage claim, and that could be leading you to different parts of the terminal because you see maybe a co-conspirator or someone that might have been

with him or see someone that he may have gotten into an argument with on the video when you roll it back in time. now it's leading you to other parts of the airport to search. >> what we're trying to decipher at this point, brian, is whether or not what we just heard from our producer, this increased activity. people actually going through the airport. he described an airport in lockdown still, but we were talking with a woman by the name of diane who said she had to go. they were telling him to get down on to the ground. what we don't know is if there's additional evidence that they had that there could be something else going on or if -- chief brown tells us you have to take these steps. >> chief brown says there is the complication of someone leaving a bag behind, if that bag then becomes suspicious. is that a bag that was -- that came off the plane, or is that a bag that the shooter may have brought in and could potentially contain explosives? they don't know that right away. they have dogs there. if the dog alerts them, it could be a false positive. it could be something. that's the kind of thing that's going in right now. the terror level is still high

there right now. >> certainly. you're looking at live pictures now of the airport coming in. i gather that since we do not see as many people there that they have been able to get to a lot of the people that we had seen earlier right in the aftermath. hundreds of people out on the tarmac. one woman described standing under the beating sun out there, and authorities had come out to say it's too hot out there to keep you standing out here. we'll get you someplace else. what we had learned in the course of early this afternoon is that not only were people who were on planes taken off the planes, but they were brought down to the tarmac, and can you see the people running here. what's unclear is whether or not those people were running from the terminal getting outside the terminal, getting off the plane. >> you said a couple of the terminals still have flights that have been able to take off,

which is somewhat spruzing given what we just heard that there appears to be additional sweeps going on and he described at least where he was standing which he said was between terminal one and two of an airport in lockdown where. >> yes, and the faa, a half hour ago, updated its statement and said now that any flight that was within 50 miles would be allowed to land. any flight has already landed at this point. then any other flights that were inbound for fort lauderdale are being diverted or delayed to other airports, and any plane that is going to take off for fort lauderdale is being held on the ground. in essence, what you have is operations are coming to a standstill. one of the pictures we showed just about ten minutes ago, you could see planes lined up. any plane that's come in that was supposed to go to terminal two has been parked off in a distance,ing in essence basically this airport is shut down at this point. >> shut down. other plains being diverted. as you just heard from david curly who covers aviation for

us, and we were seeing here in pictures coming in live from our abc station there in miami, fort lauderdale, wplg, the folks at channel ten there doing great job reporting on this as well. daeshl passengers were showing up with their luggage, and what they're coming upon is the scene that was dezriebd to us by the producer that's on the scene, which is still somewhat chaotic. he described very heavy police presence, which is not surprising at this point. continuing to sweep the building. we had an eyewitness with us on the phone. she had witnessed the shooting itself, but then had to get off the phone apologizing to us, which, of course, she didn't have to do, but was saying that authorities you were come through the terminal. these are live pictures right now on the perimeter of the airport you can see just the sheer number of passengers who were at the edge of the airport. >> the transit tracks that circle the airport there. they move them far away from the terminal buildings, which i

think would be standard safety precaution. >> it is. you want to break your perimeter out and make sure if there are other co-conspirators or bomb threats made by this suspect doing the interrogation that you have people in a safe place away from what might happen. >> just imagine stories these people are going to be able to share today of traveling to the airport and then having to deal with this unfolding. we heard from someone who had just landed, had flown into fort lauderdale from new york when she landed with a brother. people were running from the baggage terminal. these are actual train tracks too. there are hands in theary. these are incidents that you do see at school shootings and other incidents that we sadly cover all too often, but people are told to put their hands in the air. they want to be clear. chief, you told us this earlier, that even though they believe thif their lone gunman in custody, they want to make sure there's been nobody else that has been able to infiltrate these crowds and get out with the people that escaped the terminal just to seek safer ground and safer place to wait

out the afternoon until authorities can say with confidence that they -- that there was only one gunman. i want to bring in our senior justice correspondent pierre thomas. pierre, we were hearing from colonel earlier about some of the immediate questions. >> thank you so much. >> that are going to be asked. i can hear you working your sources right now. i want to bring you in. we heard there from senator bill nelson that a military id was found on the suspect, that he was wearing some sort of a uniform, and the senator actually offered of a name. i'm not sure whether or not your sources are matching the senator's information. >> david, that's a great question. the source i was just speaking to gave me the same name. again, very fluid situation. we've seen situations before where someone had another person's id on them. no one is talking in any official capacity, but that name is a name that's being circulated among the federal

government, federal law enforcement, so that's one reason why the senator has it. this source also talking about the concern about the number of people dead. this source that they were initially told four people dead. now the number is up to five. he is not sure whether the nine people that had originally been injured makes this fifth person, but obviously authorities, he said, are continuing to go through the airport to make sure that there is no other shooter, to make sure there is not any other explosive material, that could be found. they need to do as thorough of a job as they can, the source said, because there are so many people at an airport, and it just takes time. he said it's going to take time for law enforcement officials to be comfortable that the situation is completely in hand. >> that certainly is understandable. this is protocol. standard operating procedure after an incident like this. deadly shooting. it's believed to be a lone gunman walking into terminal two. the baggage claim area at fort lauderdale hollywood airport.

early this afternoon. opening fire. again, the numbers at this hour at least five people dead. this is the baggage claim area where it all transpired. images captured just moments afterward, and you can see we've been steadying the people in these images. what they had just witnessed. the fear on their faces. we keep going back to the image that's been blurred out given perhaps some of what's been left behind after he opened fire. we are joined by steve campion. he is a reporter with our abc station ktrk, and he is on a flight that just landed at fort lauderdale, and, steve, what can you tell us? where are you now? >> i can tell you we're still being held on the plane. we circled a little bit beforehand, but we didn't really have any idea why. when we landed on the ground, i can tell you what we're seeing from on board the plane right now. the terminal is closed. we're not allowed to get off the plane. i can tell you what we're seeing on the ground is hundreds of people out on the tarmac being

really essentially told to get away from the terminal where we are. i can see in the distance. again, i'm on the plane looking through a window towards emergency personnel. i can just see a line of emergency responders, ambulances, police officers there at the far end of the airport. i can tell you when we in i shally la-- initially landed we can see people running from the terminal when we were trying to pass the gate where we were coming from, and the crew here on board doesn't know a whole lot, but i can tell you there's a lot of anxious passengers on board. a lot of people their phones started going off immediately when we landed with calls from loved ones, and they are updating us right now at least about the condition. >> steve, i gather -- >> they're going -- >> yeah, go ahead. >> i was going to say they are telling us now that they are going to open a door and allow

us off of the plane on to the runway. securing locations where they're telling us they're taking us. >> to secure locations. you are describing a scene and we've been watching it play out alafternoon, steve, and we appreciate it. you're reporting from on board that plane. steve campion, of our station houston ktrk who just landed on a flight from houston to fort lauderdale telling us that they had kept them on the plane for some time just hearing from the flight crew. in fact, we could hear it as he was on the phone with us. them beginning to tell passengers on that plane that they're going to allow them to get off the plane and walk down the stairs. obviously, the tarmac where we have been watching this afternoon. hundreds of people. it away appear they have moved many of those people to the outside perimeter of the airport, which also is not a surprising move. that they would get them as far away as possible from the scene of what we saw transpire today. we have seen images of people running, and we were talking with a woman, an eyewitness who saw the initial and heard the initial shooting, and then told

us she had to get off the phone, and we are hearing from local and federal officials and i caution you, this is early reporting, but authorities are investigating reports of additional shots fired at other terminals. one and four and at a parking garage. i caution, they're just looking into reports of this. oftentimes when we hear of an initial incident in the chaos that follows, you have people screaming of the shooting, people running in the other direction, and then that also can be very confusing, chief brown, for people on the scene. even though they are investigating reports of additional shots fired, terminals one and four and at the parking garage, we have no confirmation that that actually indeed played out. it's the kind of thing you do have to investigate and the kind of thing you hear in the midst of chaos. >> the secondary calls that something else has happened is quite common when you have something like this happening. you have to follow through with all of them as if they are actually happening from a law enforcement perspective to make sure that your response, if it is true, is there to protect as

many people as possible. >> we are hearing at this hour that the president is apprised of this. we gather that the white house was told immediately, and president obama has been informed by lisa monaco, homeland security security. she's told him what transpired. obviously, the president will be nc informed as the afternoon moves on here. we also know that the presses-elect, donald trump, meeting at trump tower this afternoon, he was set to meet with the heads of the cia, the fbi, and other intelligence agencies. obviously they had other issues to discuss, but certainly this will come up, and this is, i believe, one of the first if not the first domestic incidents that donald trump even though he has not been inaugurated yet, he is just days away from becoming the 45th president, and this will be -- this will be the kind of scene, unfortunately, that he will now have to preside over in

culmination. >> he will be tested in many ways. two weeks before the inaugural, this sort of thing is exactly what u.s. officials fear they have yet to find a way to stop. the kind of random attacks in places where people don't have weapons, there is no security, and if it's not the baggage claim area of terminal two in fort lauderdale, it could be a nightclub in paris or any sort of thing where people are exposed and there's no security and as you say, david, as we've been talking all afternoon here, there is no way to protect every single place. >> there really isn't. this is a debate we've had in this country since 9/11. we mentioned it earlier on in our coverage. you understand particularly around the holidays the frustration of people who end up waiting in these lines that can be hours long. you had the computer melt down with people coming back into the country over new year's waiting for hours and hours. many of them missed flights and then were waiting at airports a full 24 hours before they were able to get on flights. all of this is tied to this post-9/11 security world, and when you see an incident like

this, you are reminded why we have all of those additional steps and the debate, david curly, that we have witnessed in this country has been how far to go, and i think really anyone watching us knows how difficult it would be to secure even those soft areas. as you were saying, front of the airport, the back of the airport, and late -- we're talking about the ticketing areas and the baggage claim areas. >> yeah. there's actually a lot of talk among the experts who look at this kind of airport security situation who think it's time to move security farther back from tsa. at least to the front doors. we're talking the front doors of the ticket where you get your ticket or at baggage claim. that's very expensive. who is going to pay for it? is the federal government going to pay for it? the airlines would have to fey for if. it's this debate we've had, and

it's got heated and more attention since we've had the issues in it's an buhstanbul an as well. as you've been saying all afternoon and our experts as well, soft targets. the front of the airport that is not secure. a lot of people gather it's the same reason that malls are a concern for law enforcement as well. wherever large number of people are gathered. it could be a target for somebody with a weapon. that's the area you are concerned about. >> david curly, thank you. david curly covers aviation. these are live pictures from kplg. our affiliate in the region. you saw the heavy presence there already. law enforcement on the scene. someone walking the -- near the parking garage, it would appear, right there. we heard from senator bill nelson in florida earlier in our live coverage who told us that they had already increased what he called viper teams, teams including dogs, canines at the airport. david curly now just telling us about the debate about whether or not to move security back even further so that you would

see security even from the moment you walk into those ticketing areas and much earlier than perhaps that tsa security line that you get into. these are pictures from earlier. they're running around. you can see that they're going from floor to floor. this is a stairwell, i gather that it could be the parking gauge. these are live pictures coming in from fort lauderdale airport, and this is what chief brown was telling us about earlier. this is standard operating procedure after an incident like this that law enforcement would ask people to get down. which we heard from an eyewitness who was on the phone as it happened to her. she sounded somewhat frightened by it. hopefully she figured out pretty quickly that this is part of what they have to do. i will say this, though. the broward sheriff's donald trump has now tweeted and we were being very careful with this information about reports of possible additional shots being fired in overwhelm terminals. the broward sheriffs have now tweeted that there are, in fact, unconfirmed reports of additional shots fired on

airport property. it was two other terminals and the parking garage, which would explain why we're looking at live pictures right now of a very tense scene unfolding. diane haggerty why i is back with us. i mentioned diane earlier. diane was inside the airport. first of all, diane, we wanted to make sure you were okay. they were sweeping the terminal? >> yes. no. they were patting us down. >> they patted you down. they went from passenger to passenger. >> passenger -- patted everybody down. >> were they explaining that that's what they have to do? >> no. no. they just told us stand there and you'll get patted down zwrsh. >> certainly you understand why. >> oh, i understand -- i understand why. as i said, you know, it is just -- as i said, when you see, you know, that's like in the movies. i was behind a kiosk. i had a perfect picture of him coming and walking up and down shooting the people. i mean, i just can't believe that that was possible.

>> diane, you were at a kiosk in what part of the airport when you first saw him? were you in the baggage claim area? where were you? >> yes. that's where he shot in the baggage claim. he shot everybody between two and three. >> between two and three? meaning -- >> the carry sells. >> oh, between carousels two and three. had you come in on the flight? is that why you were at baggage claim? >> no, no. i work there. i work for a cruise line, and i was standing by the kiosk. we heard the noise, and all we heard -- we thought it was -- we thought it was firecrackers, wise kids that were doing, and then we looked down because i know where he came in, and we looked again, and we saw him with the gun going up and down. we all realized then this is bad. we fell down, and everybody said get out, get out. i found a way to get out. >> you left the terminal altogether or did you go to

another terminal? where are you no you? >> yes. that terminal -- i came back. everything i have is here, and i felt -- also, we had people to take care of. >> had people to take care of, and diane, unfortunately what you describe is what we have heard so often is that initially people think it's firecrackers or something being set off by -- >> it sounded like -- it sounded like that. we all looked down to where it was coming from, and the only thing we can figure out is that he was shooting up in the beginning because then when he got -- he did nothing but swing the gun and shoot. >> diane, can you describe what you were able to see? were you able to see him directly? we have reports that he was wearing a uniform, that he was carrying some sort of a long gun. what did you see? >> i didn't see a long gun. i saw a short gun. and he had on a bluish green shirt, and i would say he was

not too old. i mean, you know, he wasn't 50 or 60. i would say. no, as i say, i watched him, and i can't believe i watched it. >> was he saying anything as ef doing this? >> no. no. not that i heard. unless he was saying something under his breath. i was probably about 20 feet away. >> diane haggerty with us on the phone. we're all familiar when you come through terminal after you come off the flight, you get your bags. and they're the very kind faces waiting to greet you from various different businesses. we're glad you're okay. she described the scene of people who initially heard cracking. they didn't know whether they were dealing with firecrackers. she told teenagers maybe in the airport. it was not long before she actually saw the shooter