The Los Angeles airport, known as LAX, is the seventh busiest airport worldwide in terms of traffic.
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Video feeds from the airport had shown dozens of people gathered on a tarmac and outside terminals at one of the nation’s busiest airports. Loud noises caused the panic, they said. Airlines reported two cancelled flights.
Believing the man was armed with a sword, police approached him with weapons drawn “out of an abundance of caution”, according to the airport.
Airport police Officer Rob Pedregon said the initial emergency call came in Terminal 8 around 8:45 p.m. Sunday. The man was released.
A man dressed as Zorro and carrying a plastic sword was confronted at gunpoint by police at Los Angeles International Airport Sunday, just moments before a false report of an active shooter sent passengers stampeding from multiple terminals. No actual shooting occurred there either.
Directly following that incident, reports spread of an active shooter in Terminal 8.
At least two terminals were “self-evacuated” and security personnel were checking them for anything suspicious, according to Officer Alicia Hernandez of the LAX police. She said terminals would reopen to passengers once they were deemed safe.
“I’ve never seen passengers, just normal people, on the tarmac anywhere in the United States”, McDonald told KCAL-TV.
The airport’s main terminal for global flights, Tom Bradley worldwide Terminal, where Qantas and Virgin Australia depart, also had to be cleared by police. After an all-clear order, travelers re-entered and were rescreened.
With the masked man’s identity withheld, the police found that he often works as “Zorro” on Hollywood Boulevard, and that he went to LAX to meet up with a passenger.
Officers with rifles stormed the airport but uncovered no evidence of a gunman or shots fired. Twelve of those flights were diverted to Ontario International Airport.
The scare shut down three terminals, closed roads and held flights in the air and on the ground, but no one was hurt.
All terminals resumed operations around 11 p.m.
Investigators found no connection between the two incidents.
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Police from the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey evacuated the terminal out of caution, spokesman Joe Pentangelo said. The episode was further stoked by word of mouth and social media.
