A physical fight that broke out at an airport in Phoenix turned violent as one person pulled out a gun and three were shot and one stabbed.
Cops responded to reports of a shooting at a restaurant at Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport around 9.45pm on Wednesday and found a several people injured.
A woman and two men were shot, and the female victim suffered a life-threatening wound, police said.
Another man was stabbed. He and the two men who were shot are in stable condition.
Cops detained two people – a man with at least one stabbing wound and a girl who was not hurt in the car park.
The parties involved in the Christmas Day fight appeared to know each other.
‘I do believe that this was a family dispute that escalated,’ said Phoenix police Sgt Mayra Reeson.
‘Of course this was scary, this was Christmas evening, everybody’s trying to get home.’
No bystanders were hurt. None of the four victims were immediately identified.
That same night, shortly before 11.25pm, another armed man arrived at the airport after he ‘received a text message that he believed there was an active shooter at Sky Harbor’, Reeson said.
He began yelling at a cop who approached him and did not obey orders to stop, police said. Cops then arrested him. He was pictured handcuffed shirtless on the ground, face down, while wearing shorts. Another image showed him behind held by two police officers escorting him down an escalator.
‘There was no active shooter. There never was,’ Reeson said.
He was identified as Cole Nenon, 21, and had three firearms taken from him at the scene. Nenon has been charged with aggravated assault.
The two incidents at the airport were not connected, authorities said.
Flight schedules were not impacted by crimes, but the earlier incident forced the security checkpoint at the terminal and restaurants to briefly pause operations.
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