Suspect shot after machete attack at New Orleans airport
A man armed with a machete and insecticide attacked two Transportation Security Agency workers at a New Orleans airport late Friday before he was shot multiple times by authorities, police said.
Richard White, 62, allegedly walked up to a TSA checkpoint at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport around 9 p.m. CDT when he pulled out a can of wasp insecticide and sprayed a male officer, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said. He then allegedly pulled out a machete and began swinging it around.
The male officer grabbed some luggage to defend himself from the machete, and then was chased by White, Normand said.
White then ran through the detector chasing a female TSA agent when Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Lt. Heather Slyve drew her weapon. As she approached White, he continued to swing his machete. Slyve fired three rounds, striking White in the face, chest and leg.
The gunfire struck a TSA agent in the arm, police said. Some bystanders suffered minor injuries as they scrambled to leave the area, police said.
White was still alive and in surgery at a hospital, Normand said.