Sheriff’s deputy suspended over leaked Florida airport attack video

Miami (AFP) – A law enforcement official has been suspended on suspicion of leaking a video of the moment when a gunman opened fire at a Florida airport in a shooting spree that left five people dead, the local sheriff said Wednesday.

Michael Dingman, a Broward County sheriff’s deputy, was suspended with pay on Tuesday pending an investigation into the leak of images of Friday’s attack to the TMZ news website.

“Tomorrow I could put him back to full duty, I could suspend him without pay, he could get arrested,” Sheriff Scott Israel told local radio station 610 WIOD.

The video posted by TMZ on Sunday showed the alleged killer, Esteban Santiago, pull a handgun from his waistband and fire twice in the baggage claim area of the Fort Lauderdale, Florida airport.

Terrified passengers could be seen diving to the floor or crouching behind baggage carts.

Santiago, who has been charged with federal crimes that carry the death penalty, was taken into custody after apparently running out of ammunition.

Five people were killed and six were wounded.

Israel said investigators still don’t know if Santiago had any connection to Fort Lauderdale, or why he chose to attack when he did.

“He could be a homegrown violent extremist,” he said.

Santiago, a 26-year-old Iraq war veteran who had reported hearing voices to the FBI, flew to Fort Lauderdale from Alaska, where he worked for a security company until last November.

Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief apologized to the families of the victims “for having to watch this on national television.”

“It is completely unacceptable,” she told ABC television, that “somebody with that type of security clearance could think that [it] is OK to leak evidence to a media organization.”