A man police say was carrying a knife and refused to drop it during an encounter at St. Louis Lambert International Airport was shot and killed by officers early Friday, authorities said.
According to a news release from the St. Louis County Police Department, airport police were conducting routine security checks in Terminal 1 just after 1 a.m. on Nov. 21 when they allegedly saw the man holding a knife.
Officers ordered him to drop the weapon, police said, but he refused. One officer then deployed a Taser, yet the man allegedly continued moving toward police.
“The suspect continued to advance towards officers, and a second police officer fired his service weapon, striking the male suspect,” the release stated.
The man, who has not been publicly identified, was pronounced dead at the scene. The officers involved have not been named.
Police spokesperson Vera Clay told Fox 2 that investigators are still working to determine why the man was in the area where he was encountered.
“I don’t believe it was a restricted area,” Clay said at the scene. “But remember the airport is for people who are traveling, using it for travel.
“A better question for the St. Louis Airport Police is, and that’s part of the investigation, why this person should not have been in the area they were in. And you have to remember also they also had a weapon and came at police. They were asked to leave and didn’t do that.”
Airport operations were not disrupted during the incident, CBS News reported.
Lambert Airport CEO and Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge issued a statement calling the shooting “a tragic event for our airport community,” according to Fox 2.
