Police searching for man who fled from Atlanta airport security checkpoint after a weapon was discharged during screening
Authorities are searching for the man who escaped an Atlanta airport security checkpoint after a weapon was discharged Saturday, frightening travelers and temporarily grounding flights at one of world's busiest airports the weekend before Thanksgiving.
Officials believe the weapon that was discharged at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was in a bag belonging to Kenny Wells, a passenger who, police say, ran away with the weapon in hand.
Wells, 42, is wanted on warrants accusing him of carrying a concealed a weapon at a commercial airport, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, discharging a firearm and reckless conduct, Atlanta Police Department Airport Precinct Commander Reginald L. Moorman said.
"We are actively pursuing this individual," Moorman added.
It is illegal for people to take firearms through security checkpoints at airports in the US, according to Page Pate, a Georgia criminal defense attorney and constitutional lawyer.
In the first 10 months of this year, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) intercepted 4,650 firearms -- a majority of which were loaded -- at security checkpoints, surpassing the full-year record of 4,432 set in 2019.
At the Atlanta airport, 450 firearms have been detected at checkpoints so far this year, the TSA said Saturday.
Saturday's incident unfolded around 1:30 p.m., when the passenger's property was flagged for a "secondary search" after the X-ray screening at the security checkpoint detected a "prohibited item," Robert Spinden, the TSA's federal security director for Georgia, said during a news conference.
"During that secondary search, the passenger lunged into his property, grabbing a firearm that was located inside, which ultimately discharged," Spinden said. "The passenger then fled the security checkpoint through an adjacent exit lane with his firearm."
"We're fortunate that when the firearm went off, nobody was seriously injured," Spinden said.
The incident left three people with non-life-threatening injuries, TSA officials said. A source familiar with the matter told CNN those injured were not shot; they were hurt while the airport was evacuated. The firearm was discharged into the property of the person who brought the weapon, the source said.
All the injured were adults, two of whom were taken to the hospital, according to the source.
Airport spokesperson Andrew Gobeil characterized the discharge as accidental, adding the loud noise created a "sense of chaos." The investigation into what happened is ongoing, he said.
The scare came a day after TSA screened more than 2.2 million airport travelers across the country on Friday -- the highest checkpoint volume for a single day since the Covid-19 pandemic began, an agency spokesperson said.
Videos show chaos at airport
The weapon discharge spurred panic at Atlanta's international airport, where federal aviation officials issued a brief ground stop for departing flights.
Video from inside the airport and eyewitness accounts illustrate the confusion and fear that was unleashed.
In one video posted by Stephoń Stafford, line dividers are knocked down as people are lying on the ground in an apparent attempt to seek cover as someone is heard shouting, "Get down." Stafford said he was about to go through security with his child.
Another video shared on Twitter by Haşmet Asilkan from outside the airport shows many people running in a frenzy as someone is heard yelling for people to run.
Dianne Callahan was traveling with her son and had boarded her flight to New York. She said she heard screams outside of the plane when the crew closed the door. She also heard sirens, Callahan said, and didn't know what was going on.
"It was an extremely tense situation," she said. "People were pushing to get on the plane that were not even on our flight. That's how scared they were."
Callahan and her son were then sent to go back through security, she said.
CNN's Melissa Alonso, Raja Razek, Taliah Miller, Justin Lear, Pete Muntean, Dakin Andone, Keith Allen, David Williams, Nadia Romero and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
警方正在寻找在安检过程中使用武器后逃离亚特兰大机场安全检查站的男子
当局正在寻找周六释放武器后逃离亚特兰大机场安全检查站的男子，这吓坏了旅客，并在感恩节前的周末暂时停飞了世界上最繁忙的机场之一的航班。
官员们认为，在 Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport 放出的武器放在属于 Kenny Wells 的一个包里，警方称，这名乘客手持武器逃跑了。
亚特兰大警察局机场分局指挥官 Reginald L. Moorman 说，现年 42 岁的威尔斯因在商业机场携带隐藏武器、被定罪的重罪犯持有枪支、开枪和鲁莽行为而被通缉。
“我们正在积极追查这个人，”摩尔曼补充道。
佐治亚州刑事辩护律师兼宪法律师佩奇 (Page Pate) 表示，人们在美国机场的安全检查站携带枪支是违法的。
今年前 10 个月，运输安全管理局 (TSA) 在安全检查站截获了 4,650 支枪支，其中大部分是装载的，超过了 2019 年创下的 4,432 支的全年记录。
美国运输安全管理局周六表示，在亚特兰大机场，今年迄今为止在检查站发现了 450 支枪支。
TSA 佐治亚州联邦安全主管罗伯特·斯宾登 (Robert Spinden) 表示，周六的事件发生在下午 1 点 30 分左右，当时在安全检查站的 X 光检查检测到“违禁物品”后，乘客的财产被标记为进行“二次搜查”在新闻发布会上。
斯宾登说：“在二次搜查中，这名乘客冲进了他的财产，抓住了里面的枪支，最终开火了。” “然后这名乘客带着他的枪从相邻的出口通道逃离了安全检查站。”
“我们很幸运，当枪响时，没有人受重伤，”斯宾登说。
TSA 官员说，这起事件造成三人受伤，没有生命危险。一位熟悉此事的消息人士告诉美国有线电视新闻网，受伤的人没有被枪杀；他们在机场疏散时受伤。消息人士称，枪支被扔进了携带武器的人的财产中。
据消息人士称，所有伤者都是成年人，其中两人被送往医院。
机场发言人安德鲁·戈贝尔（Andrew Gobeil）将此次放电描述为意外，并补充说巨大的噪音造成了“混乱感”。他说，正在对所发生的事情进行调查。
该机构发言人说，在周五 TSA 对全国超过 220 万机场旅客进行了筛查之后的第二天，这是自 Covid-19 大流行开始以来的最高检查站数量。
视频显示机场混乱
武器发射引发了亚特兰大国际机场的恐慌，联邦航空官员在那里发布了短暂的离港航班停飞令。
来自机场内部的视频和目击者的叙述说明了当时的困惑和恐惧。
在 Stephoń Stafford 发布的一段视频中，当人们躺在地上显然试图寻求掩护时，分线器被撞倒，因为听到有人大喊“趴下”。斯塔福德说他准备带着孩子过安检。
Haşmet Asilkan 在机场外在 Twitter 上分享的另一段视频显示，许多人在疯狂奔跑，因为有人大声喊叫人们快跑。
黛安·卡拉汉 (Dianne Callahan) 和她的儿子一起旅行，并登上了飞往纽约的航班。她说，当机组人员关上门时，她听到了飞机外的尖叫声。卡拉汉说，她还听到了警报声，但不知道发生了什么。
“这是一个极其紧张的局面，”她说。 “人们争先恐后地登上甚至不在我们航班上的飞机。这就是他们有多害怕。”
她说，然后卡拉汉和她的儿子被送回过安检。
