Amid the chaos as officers rushed to the Los Angeles International Airport for a false report of shots fired Sunday evening, one scene stood out as police surrounded a man dressed as Zorro.
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False reports of an active shooter quickly spread, and passengers in five terminals evacuated or pushed through security checkpoints, airport police said.
Terrified passengers dropped their bags and escaped through emergency exits and ran on to the tarmac while others attempted to flee up luggage chutes on Sunday night as police with guns drawn swarmed the massive, multi-terminal airport. NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, who had just arrived at the airport, said passengers were streaming from the terminal buildings. “Report of shooting at LAX proven to be LOUD NOISES only”, Los Angeles Police Department chief spokesperson Andy Neiman wrote on Twitter.
After a shooting incident two years ago at LAX, a system was instituted to send text messages to people, he said. The false report caused several delays, cancellations and diverted flights.
Latest tweets say police officers saying they can not find any significant incident.
Police say an investigation is still underway. The airport said it requested a ground stop of flights from the Federal Aviation Administration on the south runway complex because of passengers who ran onto the airfield.
In the NY incident this month, two people reported hearing what they thought were shots fired, law enforcement sources said then.
“People evacuated from terminals are allowed back in as they pass through TSA screening”, Badlissi said.
Investigators were focusing on what prompted the first of several 911 calls from multiple terminals, airport police officer Rob Pedregon said.
Callers reported gunshots, but after a chaotic night that saw panicked travelers running onto streets and the tarmac authorities determined no shots were fired and no gunman was at the airport. Police proceeded to shut down numerous terminals, as well as nearby traffic, and all flights were halted between 9 and 9:30pm.
Before airport police received reports of an active shooter, they detained a man dressed as Zorro in Terminal 7 around 8:40 p.m. Police had received reports of a man dressed in black with a sword, wearing a mask.
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The roads were reopened around 10:30 p.m. LAX is the seventh busiest airport worldwide in terms of total traffic.
