Machete-wielding man shot at New Orleans airport

by Elliot Smilowitz - 03/20/15 9:45 PM ET

A machete-wielding man charged a security checkpoint and injured at least two people before police shot him at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Friday evening.

{mosads}According to WVUE New Orleans, a man identified as 63-year-old taxi driver Richard White sprayed wasp spray at a TSA agent, then produced a machete and cut another agent. A police officer shot him shortly after. White is hospitalized and unresponsive.

The confrontation began after White tried to bypass a Southwest Airlines checkpoint and was stopped by security.

One bystander received a graze wound, and some others sustained injuries trying to get away from the incident, WVUE said.

“There was a security incident near concourse B of the airport,” the airport’s Twitter account said. “The site has been secured[.] We will release more info as it comes available.”

The FBI and local law enforcement are both responding to the scene, ABC reported.

-Updated at 11:21 p.m.

At approximately 8:00 p.m. CT, a female supervisory #TSA officer at @NO_Airport was assaulted in the public area outside of Checkpoint B.

— TSA (@TSA) March 21, 2015

The officer was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

— TSA (@TSA) March 21, 2015

#msy machete near tsa shortly after incident. Victim down. Not my photo – fellow traveler texted to me. pic.twitter.com/gaKnKtnBlq

— Rebecca Slomski (@Becky_SAP) March 21, 2015