Dallas police shoot man who charged officer at airport

By Lisa Maria Garza

DALLAS (Reuters) – Police shot a man who charged an officer after attacking a woman’s car with a rock outside the Love Field airport in Dallas on Friday, prompting a temporary shutdown of parts of the facility.

Police said the suspect appeared to be the father of the woman’s children. The disturbance happened outside baggage claim. The suspect was conscious when he was taken away by ambulance but his condition is unknown, Dallas Assistant Police Chief Randy Blankenbaker told reporters.

Witnesses told Dallas broadcaster WFAA the suspect dared the officer to “shoot me” before he charged. Blankenbaker did not comment on the report.

Video images of the woman’s car showed broken windows and numerous dents but police said she was not hurt.

In a social media video played on several broadcasters, five shots could be heard, followed by a volley of several more. Shouts of “get down” were heard and an officer with a pistol could be seen.

Due to confusion, some people entered secure areas without proper screening, Blankenbaker said.

“The airport decided to pull everyone back out of the secure area and recheck them for security purposes,” he said.

This created massive lines and the incident led to problems with flight schedules at the airport where budget carrier Southwest Airlines Co controls 18 of Love Field’s 20 airport gates.

As of Friday afternoon, Love Field had the second-largest number of flights delayed of any U.S. airport after Los Angeles International, at 50 or 14 percent of its departures, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com.

Southwest temporarily grounded its flights at the airport for about two hours, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Bryan Armstrong, a witness, told CNN the man who was shot had a rock in his hand and police ordered him to drop it as he walked toward them. Police shot the man when he did not comply, Armstrong said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago, Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas and Jeffrey Dastin in New York; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by David Gregorio and Chizu Nomiyama)