Emergency responders are shown near the main entrance at Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Monday, July 25, 2022. A 37-year-old woman fired several gunshots, apparently at the ceiling, inside of Dallas' Love Field Airport on Monday before an officer shot and wounded her, authorities said. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Republished July 25, 2022 - 5:35 PM
Original Publication Date July 25, 2022 - 9:51 AM
DALLAS (AP) — A 37-year-old woman fired several gunshots, apparently at the ceiling, inside of Dallas' Love Field Airport on Monday before an officer shot and wounded her, authorities said.
The woman was dropped off at the airport at about 11 a.m., walked inside near the ticketing counters and entered a bathroom, Dallas police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a news conference. She emerged wearing a hooded sweatshirt or some other clothing that she hadn’t arrived in, pulled a gun and fired several shots, apparently at the ceiling, he said.
“At this point, we don’t know where exactly the individual was aiming,” Garcia said.
An officer nearby shot the woman in her “lower extremities," wounding her and enabling her to be taken into custody, Garcia said. She was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
“No other individuals were injured in this event other than the suspect,” Garcia said.
Police later identified the woman as Portia Odufuwa, 37, and did not speculate as to her motive.
“We wanted to ensure that our community knows that this is not an active situation,” the chief said.
Karen Warner told The Dallas Morning News that she was checking in for her flight when she heard a loud argument about 20 feet (6 meters) behind her, followed by a gunshot. Then she started running.
“I heard about 10 more shots while I was running away,” said Warner, who couldn't discern what the argument was about.
Love Field, which is one of the Dallas-Fort Worth area's two major airports, suspended airport operations after the shooting but said at around 3:45 p.m. that they had resumed. The Federal Aviation Administration held up flights for a couple of hours while police investigated, but flights were cleared to resume around mid-afternoon.
A spokesman for Southwest Airlines, which uses Love Field as a hub, said the airline canceled most of its flights that were scheduled to depart or arrive at Love Field before 6 p.m. CDT. Southwest canceled 85 flights at Love Field on Monday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
The shooting wasn't the first violent incident at the airport.
In 2016, a police officer shot and wounded a man outside of Love Field after police said he advanced toward the officer with large landscaping rocks in his hands after battering his ex-girlfriend's car with a traffic cone and rocks as she dropped him off at the airport.
News from © The Associated Press, 2022