The woman who fired several shots in the air near a ticket counter in Dallas Love Field Airport, Texas, before being shot by the police has been identified as Portia Odufuwa, 37. The suspect was the only person injured in the shooting. Odufuwa was arrested and taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital where she remains.
Police also said that Odufuwa was earlier involved in a bank robbery in 2019 and was arrested. A dramatic video has emerged that captures the moment a police officer confronts Odufuwa shortly after she opened fire in the airport before shooting and injuring her, while passengers duked in horror.
Big Tragedy Avoided
Odufuwa started firing multiple shots with a revolver just before 11 am on Monday, while panicked passengers hid beneath chairs and fled the scene of the shooting. Shortly after she started firing, a police officer present at the scene confronted the lady, shooting and wounding her.
According to authorities, she was transferred to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where she is still there. Police said that Odufuwa was dropped off at the airport, changed her clothes inside a bathroom and then opened fire around before being shot.
Authorities also said that Odufuwa was previously known to law enforcement after being arrested for robbing a bank in Wylie, Texas, in 2019.
According to authorities, the suspect was the only person who was injured. They confirmed that at this time, "the terminal is secure."
The motive behind the shooting is still unknown as Odufuwa is still recovering in hospital after she was shot and injured.
After the shooting started, passengers at the airport started to flee. Kristen Smith told The New York Post that she and her 10-year-old son were waiting at a Southwest Airlines gate when "crowd started running towards us and saying 'run' and 'active shooter.'"
Narrow Escape
Colby James, one of the witnesses, told NBC 5 that Odufuwa announced that her husband had been having an extramarital affair before pulling out the revolver and firing roughly 12 shots into the ceiling.
After she pulled the trigger close to the airport ticket counter, he claimed that everyone started running for cover.
A video clip posted on Twitter shows passengers ducking in horror as shots ring out. As people start taking cover, an officer with his gun is seen racing toward the area where the suspect was as authorities can be heard yelling to stay down and not to move.
Odufuwa is then seen being shot by one of the cops before she collapses, as other officers rush toward her to make an arrest.
One witness, posting a video of the chaotic scenes on social media, wrote: "What just happened? A group of people were running and yelling 'run' and we all immediately took cover. Nothing has been communicated to us," he wrote.
"Everything seems to be calm now. It was most certainly a scary experience for all," he added.
Max Geron, the Rockwall, Texas, chief of police, claimed to have been evacuated after the incident while he was at the airport. He congratulated the Transportation Security Administration for going a "great job."
