Officer appears to pull gun in brawl with unruly passenger at Miami International Airport
Source: WPLG
MIAMI – An incident between police and travelers at Miami International Airport was caught on cell phone camera.
It happened early Monday evening as holiday travel continues to pick up.
Officials are expecting 165,000 passengers to pass through Miami International Airport every day for the next several days.
One of those travelers became quite upset when their flight was delayed, leading to a physical altercation with police in which a Miami-Dade police officer briefly pulled out a weapon.
Cell phone video shows the officer attempting to restrain a man as a crowd of people surrounded him.
At one point, the two separate, and the video shows the man then charge at the officer with his arms flailing.
Eventually the officers breaks free and pulls out what appears to be his gun.
“An unruly passenger on a flight to Santo Domingo was upset about something,” said witness Mike Mailak. “I wasn’t sure if it was his class of travel, his check bag fees, a delay, something.”
Mailek captured the incident on his cell phone camera.
He said when officers arrived and tried to detain the upset traveler, he refused to go quietly.
“He got into an altercation with a police officer, who eventually pulled his gun,” Mailek said.
Local 10 News reached out to Miami-Dade police, who said it was just after 6:30 p.m. near Gate H8 when an unruly passenger got upset over a delayed flight and took a set of golf cart keys from an airport employee, refusing to give them back. When officers arrived, they got into a physical confrontation with the traveler when they were surrounded.
Officials at Miami International Airport released a statement Monday night that read:
“Like airports across the country, MIA is seeing record-high passenger numbers this winter travel season. Unfortunately, that passenger growth has come with a record-high increase nationwide in bad behavior as well, such as the incident this evening at MIA. Disruptive passengers face police arrest, civil penalties up to $37,000, being banned from flying, and potential federal prosecution. We have worked so hard to rebound from the pandemic and make traveling safe again, so we can visit our loved ones. Please travel responsibly by getting to the airport extra early, being patient, complying with the federal mask law and airport staff, limiting your alcohol consumption, and notifying police at the first sign of bad behavior by calling 911.”
Two people have been taken into custody to be questioned. Authorities did not say what their involvement was in the incident.
There were no injuries reported.
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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.