AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
It was chaos and confusion at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport this afternoon as gunshots rang out at the busy South Florida facility. At least five people were killed and several others injured. Authorities say a suspect is in custody.
We're joined now by reporter Kate Stein of member station WLRN. She's there at the airport. And, Kate, to start, I know authorities just finished speaking to the media. What did they have to say?
KATE STEIN, BYLINE: Yes, so Broward County Sheriff (inaudible) and a couple of other officials from the FBI came out and gave a press conference. They were explaining that five people have been confirmed dead, and at least 13 people in total were shot. So eight people have been taken to area hospitals.
It sounds as if the only shooting that took place was in Terminal 2 on the lower level near the baggage claim. And the sheriff said right now the scene is considered (inaudible) active. There's passengers sheltered in place. They're not sure when the airport is going to be reopening. And so we're still waiting to see whether or not this was an act of terrorism. They're not releasing any information about the victims right now.
CORNISH: What did Sheriff Scott Israel say was next for the suspect? Is he being questioned by anyone else?
STEIN: He's being questioned by the FBI right now. He was taken into custody. Well, the shooting began at around 1 p.m. He was taken - the suspect taken into custody shortly after that by a Broward sheriff deputy. And it sounds as if he was taken into custody without incident. No shots were fired, and the suspect had not been injured. They are still investigating as to how he got into the airport.
CORNISH: Now, I understand you were able to get to the airport not long after this happened. Can you describe the scene?
STEIN: Yeah, so when I pulled up, it was surprisingly easy to get close to Terminal 2. There was a media staging area sort of along the walkway leading up to the terminal. And from there, I could see Terminal 2, Terminal 1 and a parking garage to the left. And all three of those areas became areas where there was security personnel present.
Terminal 2, by the time I got here, had been cordoned off pretty well. There were police cars down in that area. But the parking garage - you could see SWAT team members searching the garage. You could see them with guns drawn, like, checking each floor, and a helicopter kind of strafed the top of the garage.
And then off by Terminal 1, there had been passengers who looked like they had been deplaned, and they were sheltered, you know, on the tarmac, waiting for further instructions, it looked like. But then the fire alarm began going off in Terminal 1, and people ran away from that building. At one point, people were sheltered between Terminals 1 and - Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. They ran farther away from the terminals out onto the actual runways.
CORNISH: Now, Kate Stein is a reporter from member station WLRN. She joined us from the Fort Lauderdale International Airport. We'll hear more on this story throughout the hour. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
