A man who slashed TSA officers at the Armstrong International Airport on Friday night is 'unresponsive' according to the neighborhood sheriff. VPC
An officer directs targeted traffic at the entrance to New Orleans International Airport on March 20, 2015, in Kenner, La.(Photo: Jonathan Bachman, AP)
Bystanders caught in the chaos of a machete attack on Transportation Security Administration workers Friday night at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport said police immediately fired shots to subdue the alleged attacker, sending passengers fleeing and ducking for cover.
"Mainly everybody was acquiring down to the ground and attempting to hide under chairs," Nicole Danjean told The Times-Picayune. Danjean, who had been traveling from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., mentioned she was at her gate when she heard 3 or 4 gunshots, then heard a person yell, "Everyone get down!"
Police said Richard White, 62, approached an airport security checkpoint Friday evening, developed a can of wasp killer and started spraying agents and passengers who have been standing in line.
Then he drew a big machete from the waistband of his pants and began swinging. A male TSA agent blocked the machete with a piece of luggage as White ran by way of a metal detector, then chased a female agent, said Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand.
That's when Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Deputy Lt. Heather Slyve drew her weapon, he stated. White continued to swing the machete as Slyve approached, and she fired three rounds, striking him in the face, chest and leg.
A TSA agent was struck in the arm by a bullet when running from White, authorities said, but the wound wasn't life-threatening.
White was taken into surgery at a hospital overnight, Normand mentioned.
Investigators were attempting to determine what White was undertaking at the airport. He lives about 2 miles from the airport in nearby Kenner, La., and Normand said it didn't seem as if he was trying to get on a plane.
A neighbor, Donna Jackson, told the Times-Picayune that White was a former Army serviceman, lengthy given that retired and living off Social Safety and disability checks. He was a deeply religious man, she said, a Jehovah's Witness who shunned Western medicine and encouraged Jackson to use herbal treatments, even to treat her diabetes.
Police didn't quickly offer a motive for the attack. The sheriff's office stated early Saturday that authorities later located White's automobile outdoors the terminal and searched it. They determined that White had been arrested several instances for minor violations.
Bystanders described panic and chaos immediately after Slyve fired the shots. "Absolutely everyone was ducking for cover," Garret Laborde, 31, who was flying to Houston, told the Related Press.
"I knew they (the gunshots) had been coming from the security checkpoint area," he mentioned. "I right away ducked down."
He referred to as the scene "immediate chaos" with "lots of females screaming." He remained down for several minutes and soon sirens went off, along with announcements ordering passengers to evacuate.
Jeremy Didier of Kansas City was returning from a trip in Florida with her 14-year-old daughter when she heard screaming. "I saw a man jumping more than people" at the safety line, she told the Times-Picayune. Didier stated she heard shots and "everyone hit the floor."
Logan Tucker, 26, of Meridian, Miss., and Phillip Green, 33, of Houston, both headed to Houston for operate as deckhands on a tugboat, stated they had been about 25 yards from where the attack unfolded. "I heard the gunshots," Tucker told the Associated Press.
"It was pandemonium after that," Green mentioned. "I took cover. I did not want to turn out to be component of the story."
Green said they saw the machete and the suspect on the ground as they have been leaving. The knife was about 14 inches lengthy, he stated. He saw a TSA agent with an injury to her arm. "It was not some thing you anticipate in an airport, and I've traveled a lot," Tucker mentioned.
Travelers clapped for the TSA agent as they passed her, witnesses said. The agent seemed to be in fantastic spirits — she smiled and waved to passengers as they walked by.
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