Officials: Homeless man armed with knives, scissors at airport
ATLANTA - It was a potentially dangerous situation at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as an armed homeless man was confronted by police this week.
FOX 5 News has been reporting for weeks about the growing problem of homeless people at Atlanta’s airport. Officers and police union representatives agreed it was already a problem which was growing more dangerous.
WATCH: City council members react to the arrest
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An incident this week put an urgent accent on those fears. A man pushing a shopping cart and carrying a large bag in the atrium was stopped by officers, but it was what they found on the man that was shocking: five scissors tied to a shoe lace around his waist, a 10-inch butcher knife in his jacket, and a large machete in a bag inside the shopping cart he was pushing.
Officers arrested Kenneth Royal, who according to a police report obtained by FOX 5 News, got off the MARTA train and entered the airport with the shopping cart and large bag in tow. Royal was arrested for criminal trespass and for violating city ordinance for carrying the aforementioned items. He was booked into the Clayton County Jail.
Officers V. Mack and Narvaez are being credited for helping to defuse a potentially dangerous situation before it started by approaching Royal.
During an Atlanta City Council meeting on Wednesday, Council Member Keisha Lance Bottoms asked the mayor’s top aide for a report and a review to look at one question: How can the city try to filter out potential danger in the wide physical area that is outside of checkpoint screening?