Police shoot armed woman after shots fired inside Dallas airport
DALLAS — A ground stop was issued at Love Field airport Monday morning after a woman fired several shots inside the terminal, Dallas police said.
According to police Chief Eddie García, a 37-year-old woman was dropped off at the airport about 11 a.m., where she went inside the bathroom and came out wearing a hoodie. According to García, she then pulled out a gun, aimed it toward the ceiling and fired several shots.
Officers shot the woman in her “lower extremities” and she was taken to the hospital. Her condition is unknown.
García said no one else was injured. Police said just before noon that the terminal is secure.
The Federal Aviation Administration still had a ground stop in place as of 12:30 p.m. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said the ground stop is scheduled to be lifted at 1:30 p.m.
By about 11:45 a.m., hundreds of passengers were waiting outside of the terminal, with police officers interviewing witnesses and directing traffic. Several police cars were staged in the traffic loop in front of the terminal, and police officers in tactical gear helped direct traffic.
Multiple people at the airport took to social media to share photos, videos and firsthand accounts of evacuations and lock downs in certain areas of the airport.
Karen Warner was checking in for a noon flight to Kansas City, where she was supposed to visit her mother, who is in hospice. Warner said she heard a loud argument about 20 feet behind her, followed by a gunshot.
Warner started running.
“I heard about 10 more shots while I was running away,” Warner said while waiting outside the terminal. She wasn’t able to tell what the argument was about.
Kyle Mitchell had just gotten off a flight from Denver and was walking toward baggage claim when he saw what he described as a “stampede of people” running toward the airport entrance.
Mitchell said he was impressed by how police reacted and handled the confusion.
The chaos took Mitchell by surprise, but asked whether he expected to ever be caught in a rush of people fleeing the sound of gunfire, he shrugged his shoulders.
“Evil s—- happens in the world,” Mitchell said. “You can’t stop it. The only thing you can do is prepare for it.”
Michael Loewinsohn, 28, said his plane landed at Dallas Love Field shortly before 11 a.m. He was coming home from a trip to celebrate his birthday.
Loewinsohn said “all was normal,” and he was walking through the terminal and toward the baggage claim area when he saw five or six TSA security employees coming up the stairs.
”There were a bunch of people following the TSA employees, running up the stairs, yelling, ‘shooter’ and ‘run,’” he said.
Loewinsohn and about 50 others were evacuated through a side door that led to a space between the terminal building and the tarmac, he said.
He said the evacuation took a matter of minutes, and added that TSA employees did an “incredible” job of keeping people calm and making sure that they made it safely out of the building.
”Everyone was really confused at first, but as more people started running up the stairs, you kind of understood what the situation was,” Loewinsohn said.
Outside, Loewinsohn said people were looking through social media, trying to understand what happened.
Patricia Mancha, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said TSA is “working to get travelers through airport security checkpoint and in from the heat.” Mancha said travel times may be impacted, and people should check with their airlines.
———