STREET. LOUIS (AP) — An officer at the busiest airport in St. Louis fatally shot a knife-wielding man outside the terminal door early Friday morning, police said. No one else was injured.
Shooting at St. Petersburg International Airport Louis Lambert happened around 1 a.m., a St. Louis County police spokeswoman said. Louis Vera Clay.
The area is near the light rail line that brings passengers to the terminal and is not behind a security checkpoint, according to airport maps posted on its website.
The rail line to Terminal 1 was closed for about three hours and shuttles took people from other drop-off points, but it reopened later Friday morning. The airport remained open, airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge said in a statement.
Clay said officers spotted the man in an area he shouldn’t have been and refused to leave.
Clay said the man showed officers a knife when they tried to get him to move. Officers used Tasers, but the man continued to advance toward the officers and one of them fired his gun, fatally wounding the man, Clay said.
“We don’t believe it was an individual trying to catch a plane or fly into town,” Clay said.
She later said in a statement that he was believed to be at the home and that police had not yet positively identified him.
The two officers were part of the airport police department and had a combined 14 years of law enforcement experience, St. Louis County police said. Louis in an emailed statement.
