COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A man who came to the aid of a couple at the deadly Fort Lauderdale airport shooting this month said he felt compelled to attend Wednesday’s funeral service for the Iowa man who was killed.
“There’s a lot of different reasons that I’m here today,” Mark Lea, of Elk River, Minnesota, said in an interview. “I want to help the family get through this, but I am also looking for closure for myself.”
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Lea, 53, and his wife, Kari, arrived at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Jan. 6 to head out on a weeklong Caribbean cruise to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Mike and Kari Oehme of Council Bluffs also were going on a cruise and were waiting for their luggage to come off the plane.
Mike Oehme, 57, was one of five people killed in a baggage claim area when a gunman opened fire. Kari Oehme, 55, who was among six others who were injured, is recovering from her wounds.
“I was probably 60 yards away when the first shots were fired,” Lea said. “Everyone started running and taking cover anywhere they could.”
Lea, a financial adviser, said he helped his wife and “about a half dozen” other women get outside the terminal before circling back closer to the gunman. Lea said he is licensed in 46 states to carry a concealed weapon, but he was unarmed.
“I was watching him continue to walk down the aisle of baggage claim just randomly shooting here and there to anyone that was in his path,” Lea said. “I was able to stay out of his line of sight as he fired.
“Then he stopped and I could see the slide lock on the (9 mm pistol) was empty. I was wondering how much ammunition he had and if he was going to reload or if there was a second shooter laying in the weeds.”
Lea said the gunman put down the pistol, walked a few feet and then laid on the floor with his arms and legs spread out. A Broward County deputy arrived and pounced on the gunman.
Lea said he began checking on the dead and injured. He said he found Kari Oehme and began putting pressure on her shoulder wound while trying to assess who else needed help.
“I think she could feel me rising up to look while I was still keeping pressure on the wound,” he said. “She said, ‘Don’t leave me, don’t leave me. Stay with me,’ and I told her I would and kept talking to her.”
Lea said his heart sank when Kari Oehme began asking about her husband and described him. He could see a white-haired man in a blue shirt just a few feet away who had a head wound and wasn’t moving.
“Kari had her left arm over her face and that was good, because it kept her from seeing Mike,” Lea said. “I didn’t want her to know he was dead. I wanted to keep her from going into more shock.”
Lea said he stayed with Kari Oehme until emergency medical personnel arrived. Lea assured her that she was in good hands and began looking for his wife.
“My wife was frantic,” he said. “She had been calling me, but I didn’t hear my phone. When I found her, I had Kari’s blood on my hands, and she didn’t know if it was my blood.”
The Leas went on their cruise after he was interviewed by law enforcement officers, but it was not the celebration they envisioned. Lea said he spent a couple hours a day talking by phone with counselors from law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
A spokesman for the FBI's Miami office said officials weren't in a position to comment on the matter.
“It gave my wife and I challenges through the week,” Lea said. “We were replaying the sights, the sounds and smells of that morning. It was very hard on me. It’s still hard.”
When the Oehmes’ daughter, Andrea, called to thank Lea for helping her mother, he asked to be kept informed about her condition and funeral plans for Mike Oehme. He was among the mourners Wednesday morning at Council Bluffs’ Bayliss Park Chapel.
While talking with Andrea Oehme, Lea learned her family has maintained a cabin near Brainerd, Minnesota, for the past 93 years. The Oehmes drive through Leas’ home of Elk River, a Minneapolis suburb, to get to the cabin.
“There were a lot of little things that connect us,” Lea said. “My wife and Kari spell their names the same, and I used to come down to Omaha three or four times a year on business.
“I feel like I was meant to be there,” he said, “doing what I could to help people.”