What is true is that the russians intended to meddle and they meddled. This morning the president elect weighing in on that explosive report. And winter storms. 70 Million People in 27 states under alerts, blizzard warnings up to a foot of snow, icy roads, hundreds of crashes, even snowplows out of control. Oh, my god. Flights canceled. Palm trees pummeled. Plus, the major storm out west and the concerns for catastrophe. Good morning. We have a lot of news this morning, and were going to start here with the new information pouring in overnight on the suspect in that mass shooting at the airport in ft. Lauderdale, florida. His name is Esteban Santiago. This is the photo taken overnight as he was booked into the Broward County jail on murder charges. Hes a 26yearold iraq war veteran with a reported history of Mental Illness and alleged domestic abuse. His family told the New York Times he had recently been hallucinating. As investigators try to pinpoint the motive, were hearing harrowing stories from people inside the terminal when santiago allegedly opened fire. Look at these images. The gunman being led away by police, and theres the gun on the ground. Were going to talk to the passenger who took those shots coming up. Also, overnight, those long lines, passengers forced out of the airport and into a nearby cruise terminal waiting to board buses. We do have Team Coverage this saturday morning, and we begin with abcs eva pilgrim in ft. Lauderdale for us this morning. Hi, eva. Reporter paula, the airport reopening just hours ago. Although there are delays and cancellations this morning investigators focusing on what drove this man to allegedly shoot all these people and why he came to florida. This morning the first look at the alleged ft. Lauderdale shooter, Esteban Santiago. Handcuffed on his way into a south florida jail now in federal custody on murder charges with no bond. Shots fired. Downstairs. Reporter santiago allegedly opening fire in the baggage claim. Lower level inside. We have a subject with a gunshot to the head. Reporter sources telling abc news the 26yearold gunman arrived in ft. Lauderdale as a passenger on a delta flight traveling from anchorage, alaska, through minneapolis to ft. Lauderdale. According to investigators legally checking his unloaded gun and separate ammunition into his one and only bag. After getting off the plane, a Broward County commissioner telling us the former soldier went into a bathroom where allegedly he loaded his weapon and came out shooting. Casings were flying all around us. Reporter santiago allegedly firing indiscriminately men, women, anyone in front of him. The bullet was still in my backpack when the fbi searched it. Without my laptop and the case and the plastic case, the bullet would have gone through my shoulder blades. This cowardly heinous act resulted in the deaths of five people. Reporter the airport on lockdown. Thousands evacuated from the terminal. Their arms raised as police led them to designated secure zones. Im looking at a man and a woman and the man bleeding profusely. Reporter one witness telling abc news the alleged shooter ending his rampage by laying on the ground at the baggage claim and calmly waiting for his arrest. This image reportedly of the gun left behind. A side door opened about 20 feet away with two security guards holding a man handcuffed. Reporter but for approximately 10,000 passengers, the ordeal was not over. It took almost 12 hours to fully screen the throngs of potential witnesses who were finally released in a massive crowd and slowly shuttled to this cruise ship terminal. There was no direction. There was just a mass herding of people and a lot of confusion. Reporter we are told some people even waking up this morning at that cruise ship terminal. Santiago is expected to make his first appearance in court on monday. Paula. Eva, thank you for your reporting. This morning, we want to bring in an eyewitness to the shooting, mark lea, who was right next to the shooter when he opened fire. Mark, first and foremost, thank you so much for joining us. You were right next to the shooter. Youre pretty traumatized. How are you . Im a little tired. Has not fully set in. Kind of surreal. How did it start and what exactly did you see . We were just kind of almost getting ready to leave one of the doors and heard three quick raps. I kind of turned towards where the noise was coming from. A pause after the three rounds which then people also were realizing that was gunfire. A lot of screaming, a lot of kind of yelling and people frantically trying to run to the exits to try to get out, take cover. How long did the shooting last . I would say about 45 seconds total. What was the gunman demeanor during the attack . He did not say a single thing. He was just emotionless like a blank sheet of paper. What were you doing during the attack, mark . I got my wife out of the building. From there after she got out of the building, there was a number of older ladies that had fallen in the exitway trying to get there so i went back in to help them get out. The shooter is walking in the same direction as me. At one moment both you and the shooter were kind of walking towards each other. Was there a moment you thought i might not make it out alive . The thought ran through me. I did not want to become a casualty. Are you surprised that he stopped when he did . He ran out of ammunition. Thats why he stopped shooting. What im hearing from you is an extraordinary account of bravery and courage. Did adrenaline kick in for you . Like i say, people ask what i was thinking to walk back into an active shooting scene and let alone continue to walk towards the shooter. I really didnt think. We want to thank you for your extraordinary bravery and for sharing your story with us this morning on good morning america. Thank you. Its my honor. He had a chance to leave but he decided to go back and help people. But he was also on the flight. You know, we know that santiago flew to minneapolis, and he was on that same flight, he said no disturbances from any other passengers. Incredible what he did. And speaking of santiago, this morning, investigators are digging deeply into the background of the alleged shooter. As we said, his name, Esteban Santiago. Ab news chief investigative correspondent brian ross on that part of the story. What are you learning . Reporter good morning, dan and paula. Santiago remains a mystery but what is emerging is a profile of a bad soldier with mental problems who was out on bail facing charges of beating up his girlfriend and claimed there were voices in his head forcing him to join isis. Its still far from clear what led this 26yearold veteran with the intense gaze to go on his murderous rampage but some of his social media accounts are now raising concerns. Santiagos instagram profile page has photos of him in uniform as a member of the Army National guard in puerto rico and then alaska. He was deployed to iraq for a year and was discharged four months ago for unsatisfactory performance. Santiagos profile statement reads, heres to finding whether or not your mission on earth is finished. If youre still alive, it isnt. Federal authorities tell abc news that santiago recently received Mental Health treatment after he showed up at the anchorage, alaska, fbi office claiming the government was forcing him to watch isis videos. Agents described him as incoherent. His erratic behavior concerned fbi agents that were interviewing him. He was taken into custody by the local police and transported to a medical facility for a Mental Health evaluation. Reporter shortly after the attack fbi agents and Police Quickly showed up at one of santiagos last known addresses at this trailer park in anchorage, and outside the home of his relatives in union city, new jersey trying to decipher the troubled life of Esteban Santiago and what brought him to the airport in ft. Lauderdale with a gun. Authorities tell abc news this morning that the fbi agents in alaska actually opened up what is known as a guardian case on santiago which is done when there is a suspicion of possible terrorism. But because he was not deemed a threat only to himself but to others agents did not put him on a nofly list or even have him designated as someone who should raise a flag if he booked a flight. They will be looking back at those decisions now, i suspect. They will. Shootings raising questions about security at our nations airports and whether attacks like this can be prevented. This happened at the end of the line most of the security focused right at the beginning. So we want to bring in Abcs David Kerley who is at Reagan International in d. C. Great to have you this morning, david. You know, this is what is deemed a soft target. And attacks like this when the one in brussels and istanbul last year always lead to debates on where to place security checkpoints. But, is that the answer that we should be exploring . Reporter some security analysts believe it may be time to move the security from tsa where we have it now in front of the gates and move it out to the front door. I mean, im in the ticketing area. I walked through the door without any problem and stood in front of this camera to talk to you today. But moving security to the front door for ticketing and baggage is very lossly and its going to make it more of a hassling. There are concerns and its a big debate. Its a debate that will be happening nontheless. We saw passengers running onto the tarmac which is a really secure area. Weve seen it happen before. So, is this now just Standard Operating Procedure, getting out of the building as quickly as possible in a crisis . Reporter yeah, i dont think its Standard Operating Procedure at all. These situations are very chaotic, and police werent sure what they had. Did they have just one the shooter in the baggage claim area or was there more . They wanted to lock everything down. Thats why they put people out on the tarmac to get them out of the way. Some people think and there will be Lessons Learned from what happened in ft. Lauderdale as how do you handle the next time you have an incident at an airport with a secure and unsecured area, paula. Yeah, Lessons Learned and a whole lot of debate sparked out of this. David, we want to thank you so much for your reporting this morning. Dan. Well continue to cover this story throughout the morning but we do move on right now to another major story we are covering, the new declassified Intelligence Report that says russia tried to influence the american president ial election. President elect donald trump who Vladimir Putin was allegedly trying to help now making his first comments after being briefed by intelligence officials, and abcs david wright is here with more. David, good morning. Reporter good morning, dan. This was a dramatic scene in the cold war 2. 0. The president elect sitting down with the spymasters, americas most Senior Intelligence officials hearing their unequivocal assessment that Vladimir Putin ordered the hack of the u. S. Election with the intention of electing trump and still donald trump doesnt seem to buy it. The classified briefing took place at trump tower, the nations top intelligence officials there to explain in detail why theyre convinced russia tried Everything Possible to influence the november election in favor of trump. A declassified version of the report released later in the day read, we assess russian president Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the u. S. President ial election. The goal, to help president elect trumps selection chances when possible by discrediting secretary clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. Abc chief anchor George Stephanopoulos discussed the matter with president obama. Bottom line this time Vladimir Putin got what he wanted. Well, look, i think that what is true is that the russians intended to meddle, and they meddled. Ill be honest with you, george, one thing i am concerned about is the degree to which weve seen a lot of commentary lately where there are republicans or pundits or cable commentators who seem to have more confidence in Vladimir Putin than fellow americans because those fellow americans are democrats. That cannot be. Does that include the president elect . Well, what i will say is that, and i said this right after the election, we had to remind ourselves were on the same team. Vladimir putin is not on our team. Reporter before the classified briefing, trump repeatedly cast doubt on the russian hacking story. Afterward he released a statement that didnt even mention putin. Trump did concede that russia, china and others are consistently trying to hack a variety of american institutions, but rejected any assertion this might have influenced the election results. Well, this morning trump tweeted there was absolutely no evidence that the hacking affected the election results. Hes now calling for a congressional investigation, not into the russian hacking, but rather into how reporters obtained a leaked copy of the declassified report even before trump himself had had the briefing. David, thank you. I think this is something well be talking about for awhile whether the president elect wants us to or not, and a quick note, you can see the full interview between president obama and abc news chief anchor George Stephanopoulos tomorrow morning right here on abc on this week. Thanks, dan. We want to move now to the major storm battering the south and east. This morning, millions of americans are under a winter blast of snow, ice and extremely cold temperatures. Up to a foot of snow is expected in some spots. The advisories and warnings there are up. Adrienne bankert is in raleigh, north carolina, where the snow has been falling for hours, but first we want to go to rob marciano who is in atlanta with the latest on this winter storm. Good morning, rob. Good morning, paula. 20 degrees here in atlanta and those temperatures are dropping. Most of the precip has moved out but it came in the form of some freezing rain. The roads are very slick even though they pretreated them. Coae that with the winds picking up, weve got over ten thousand Power Outages around the area. Look at the radar, theres the precip, carolinas getting rain, sleet and snow this is drifting toward the northeast, as well. Winter storm warnings posted, as we roll the storm well crank the winds, Virginia Beach a blizzard warning there through cape cod. You see the storm up toward new england, as well. The snow is falling along raleigh, north carolina. Good morning, adrien. We have snow and rain. We have windchills expected through the Single Digits through the weekend. Overnight, millions of americans in major cities from the southeast to the mid atlantic getting slammed by a winter storm. A dangerous mix of snow, sleet and ice. Blizzard conditions in Virginia Beach. Snow blanketing the oceanfront. High winds gusting up to 25 Miles Per Hour per hour blowing these palm trees. In nashville, icy roads leaving students stranded in the school buses for over two hours. Take a look at the snowplows slipping past the kids crashing into cars below. There they go. Reporter major airports feeling the effect of the storm, planes being deiced. As the storm continues long lines and empty shelves at grocery storms across the southeast. Officials warning people to take the storm seriously. It appears to become more and more severe. Reporter were at the Capitol Building in raleigh. There were big inauguration efforts events were schedule, but they had to be canceled. Reporter the cold air behind this is going to keep the snow and ice around well talk about that in the next halfhour. We have to mention whats going on out west, this is a storm thats coming in today and tomorrow, winter storm warnings for seattle and looking to add a foot of rain across parts of california, this will cause flooding and mudslides for sure. Thats a check on the national headlines, heres the local forecast. Reporter good morning, everybody, im meteorologist chris sowers with this accuweather update. The snow is flying in the delaware bay region and delaware, just south of Sussex County delaware, they are reporting two inches an hour snowfall rates it will get close to cape may in the next halfhour or two. Speaking of cape may snow on the beach. They have a half inch of snow on the beach and expecting a whole lot more. 25 degrees today and periods of snow. Little bit later. Hopefully youve thawed out by then, rob. I appreciate your reporting. You know who we havent checked in with this morning . Are his initials r. C. Then . I believe so. The one and only ron claiborne. Are you really a doctor . I am not really a doctor. I just play one on television. A doctor of news is what you are. Good morning. We begin in cleveland, ohio, with new developments in the case of that private plane that disappeared over lake erie. Divers have now recovered the aircrafts cockpit voice recorder as well as a seat with what may be human remains. Six people were on board that small aircraft when it vanished after taking off from cleveland. That was on december 29th. In chicago, a judge has denied bail for four young africanamerican suspects accused of abusing a mentally disabled white man. The disturbing incident streamed live on facebook sparking outrage. The four suspects face kidnapping and hate crime charges. In court the judge said to them where was the sense of decency that each of you should have had. And Debbie Reynolds and C