St. Louis’ busiest airport in Missouri,
United States, was a witness to an officer who fatally shot a man who wielded a knife early Friday morning outside the doors of a terminal, police said. No one else was injured.
The shooting at St. Louis Lambert International Airport
happened around
1 a.m., St. Louis County Police spokesperson Vera Clay said.
The area is nestled near the light rail line that takes travelers to the terminal and isn’t behind a security checkpoint, according to maps of the airport posted on its website.
The rail line to Terminal 1 was closed for about three hours, with shuttles taking people from other drop-off points, but it was reopened later Friday morning.
In a statement Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge, airport director,.airport remained open.
Clay said officers had noticed the man in an area where he should not have been and refused to leave. The man showed officers a knife when they tried to get him to move. Officers used Tasers, but the man continued to advance toward the officers and one of them fired their gun, fatally wounding the man.
Clay further went on to say that they don’t believe this was an individual trying to catch an airplane or coming into town.
She said later in a statement that he was believed to be unhoused and that police haven’t yet positively identified him.
The two officers were part of the airport’s police department and had a combined 14 years of law enforcement experience, St. Louis County police said in an e-mailed statement.
News Edit KV Raman
