A Canadian who hid in a restaurantâs kitchen. A father who led his children past pools of blood. A man who saw a shooter aiming randomly into the crowd. Those are some of the eyewitness accounts coming out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where a mass shooting has killed at least five people.
Passenger John Schlicher said he was in the baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday, when he saw a person fall to the ground.
Schlicher said he turned and watched a man standing in between two baggage carousels firing a black handgun ârandomly into the crowd.â
âHe was shooting people in the head,â Schlicher added. âThere were elderly people that were shot and killed. There were two people to my left and two people to my right who were shot. Several of them died.â
Police later took one suspect into custody. A Broward County official said the suspect came off a Canadian flight, but the Canadian Embassy later said the suspect "did not fly from Canada and was not on a Canadian flight."
âI saw him go paleâ
Mike Starobinsky said he was on the main level of the terminal with his wife, father-in-law and children when he stopped getting service on his cell phone.
Starobinsky, who was waiting to board a flight to Detroit, told Toronto news station CP24 that he removed his headphones and heard popping sounds.
âNext thing I know, somebodyâs screaming âshots fired, shots firedâ,â he added.
Starobinsky grabbed his children and headed outside, he said. On his way out, he saw a man on the ground bleeding profusely, and a woman beside him who seemed to be trying to stop the bleeding, he added.
Starobinksky said he watched the manâs âface turn pale,â and isnât sure if he survived.
âRight now everybody is just in disbelief and standing right next to their families,â he added, âbut it seems to be back to normal.â
âWeâre the lucky onesâ
Stephanie Auclair of Quebec told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel over the phone from the tarmac at that she saw a wave of people run by screaming âshooter, shooter.â
âEveryone ducked down and took tables to have a shield,â she said. âAfter that we hid in the kitchen of the restaurant.â
Auclair said an airport employee eventually ushered people hiding in the kitchen out onto the tarmac.
She said she saw a man handcuffed and that airport officials said the shooter was in custody.
Five people died in the mass shooting and more have been injured, according to the Broward County Sheriffâs Office.
âTerrified wouldnât even begin to say how I felt,â Auclair said. âWe see this on the news ⌠way too often.â
Auclair added that she was lucky she was able to keep her parents close by during the chaos and that they are all safe, if a bit shaken up.
âWeâre the lucky ones,â she said. âSome families are going to get the message that their loved ones are dead.â