Police: Machete-wielding man was carrying explosives
KENNER, La. -- Authorities say the machete-wielding man who was shot at New Orleans' international airport after trying to attack security agents was carrying explosives at the time.
Sheriff Newell Normand says suspect Richard White, who was shot by a security agent at the airport late Friday, was carrying a bag loaded with six Molotov cocktails. Material determined to have come from smoke bombs was also found.
"Had he made it down the concourse, who knows," Normand told reporters.
Normand says White is hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
According to a law enforcement source, White was in serious condition Saturday morning, CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports.
The sheriff suggested that the suspect has had "mental health" issues. His family has been cooperating with the investigation.
White, 63, of Kenner, is alleged to have approached a security checkpoint, spraying agents and travelers with wasp killer before drawing a machete from his waistband and chasing a security agent.
White, who is believed to be a former taxi driver, was shot three times by a sheriff's office lieutenant who was stationed at the concourse.
"We don't know what his motive was," Col. John Fortunato of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said.
Authorities said they believed White has worked as a taxi driver. A sheriff's news release said he had "a few minor arrests." Fortunato said investigators were continuing Saturday to check into his employment and criminal history.
White approached the security checkpoint at the airport's busy Concourse B shortly before 8 p.m.
Normand said White sprayed Transportation Security Administration agents and several passengers in line at the checkpoint with wasp killer. He then drew a large machete from the waistband of his pants.
At one point a male TSA agent blocked the machete with a piece of luggage as White ran through a metal detector.
Lt. Heather Slyve of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office drew her weapon. White continued to swing the machete as she approached, and she fired three rounds, striking him in the face, chest and leg, according to Normand.
The TSA agent who was running from White was grazed in the arm by one of the rounds. Her wound was not life-threatening. The TSA agents' names have not been released.
Concourse B serves Southwest Airlines. Southwest flights were diverted to another concourse Friday night. Airport spokeswoman Michelle Wilcut said in an email that Concourse B reopened normally Saturday morning for its first departing flight.