The gun believed to have been used by the Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, airport shooter to kill five people and wound six more is the same
weapon that was once taken away from him because of his mental state, sources
told NBC News on Sunday.
Former Army
reservist Esteban Santiago, 26, walked into an Alaska FBI office with his
infant child on Nov. 7 "to report that his mind was being controlled by a
U.S. intelligence agency," Special Agent in Charge Marlin Ritzman told
reporters Saturday.
Agents then
called Anchorage police, who retrieved a gun from his car outside.
"Santiago
was having terroristic thoughts and believed he was being influenced by
ISIS," Anchorage Police Chief Chris Tolley said in a news conference
Saturday.
The FBI confirmed that Santiago's child was taken into the
"constant custody and care of the FBI" until Santiago's girlfriend,
the child's mother, could pick him up.
His brother
Bryan Santiago told NBC News partner Telemundo in Puerto Rico that Esteban was
taken by police to a mental health evaluation but was released after only four
days.
Police
returned the handgun to him one month later, officials said.
On Sunday,
federal law enforcement sources told NBC News that they believe that the gun
authorities seized was the same weapon he allegedly used in Friday's shootings,
a Walther 9mm pistol.
Ritzman said
it's normal for people to deliver walk-in complaints at FBI offices across the
country. He added that nothing in Santiago's actions or history indicated a
need to do anything more than to take him to the mental health facility.
"There have been concerns raised about why Mr. Santiago
was not placed on a no-fly list. I want to be clear, during our initial
investigation we found no ties to terrorism," Ritzman said. "He broke
no laws when he came into our office making disjointed comments about mind
control."
In January
2016, however, Santiago was arrested and charged with assault and criminal
mischief after a violent argument with his girlfriend in Anchorage. She told
investigators that he broke down the door, choked her and hit her on the side
of the head.
Nevertheless,
on Nov. 17, Anchorage police sent Santiago a letter inviting him to pick up his
gun from evidence lockup, Tolley said. The former soldier went by the police
station on Nov. 30 to pick up his weapon.
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