A 63-year-old man was shot Friday at a security checkpoint in the New Orleans international airport after he cut a guard with a machete and sprayed two others with wasp spray.
Richard White entered the airport and went through the TSA pre-check line, where boarding passes are checked, when he was confronted by one of the guards, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand told a news conference outside the airport.
White responded by spraying the guard with wasp spray, then struck a female officer with a machete, cutting her right arm, Normand said. White sprayed the male officer again before a third officer shot him, striking him in the left chest, left thigh and left facial area, the sheriff said.
Normand said White was transferred to a hospital but was "unresponsive."
A bystander received a graze wound to the arm during the scramble to get out of the area, and a few people received minor cuts from furniture, the sheriff said.
There was no information about a connection between White and the airport, Normand said.
"We don't know if he was traveling. We're still piecing together witness interviews."