Speaking of events which didn’t garner the media attention some thought they deserved, police on Wednesday shot and killed a man in the departures area of the Port Columbus International Airport in Ohio. On Thursday, police released information about the man, whom they say charged police with a knife after attempting to buy an airline ticket to an undisclosed destination using a woman’s ID.
Man shot at Port Columbus had earlier sought airline ticket
Knife-wielding man displayed bizarre behavior, police say http://t.co/HRhHtBNegi— Amy (@Draygo81) January 8, 2015
Sgt. Rich Weiner, a spokesman for the Columbus Police, told the Columbus Dispatch:
“It looked like a casual encounter at first, and then suddenly (the suspect) produced a knife and lunged at the officer and attempted to stab him,” Weiner said.
The man barely missed the officer, who fired a gun multiple times.
The man dropped to the ground but got up and came at officers again. Another officer fired multiple times, killing him not far from the north doors to the departures level of the terminal.
A search of the man’s body turned up more knives, Weiner said, although he wouldn’t say how many.
“The officers also discovered items on the suspect which prompted them to contact the Columbus Fire Bomb Squad, which also searched the suspect’s vehicle,” airport officials said in a statement. “Suspicious items were removed from the scene.” Details weren’t released.
Muslim man shot at Airport after he tried to board plane without ID and stabbed Police officer http://t.co/ln2YiclqRb pic.twitter.com/9iqf1OS1n5
— #ExDemocrat ???????????? (@riwired) January 9, 2015
The man was identified as 41-year-old Hashim Hanif Ibn Abdul-Rasheed. Police said there was no evidence of terrorism, and the case was being treated as “just a violent encounter between an armed man and the officers here.”
The Dispatch further reports that in 2000 Abdul-Rasheed “was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of attempted murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, grand theft and gun possession. Police seized two 9mm handguns, a 5-inch knife and 227 rounds of ammunition.” He “had previously been convicted of felonious assault in Cuyahoga County for stabbing a man in 1995.”
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