Police say they’ve prevented a doable mass taking pictures on the Atlanta airport because of the exhausting work of a number of officers and a name from the suspected gunman’s household.
At a press convention on Monday afternoon, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens mentioned {that a} Cartersville man who was having a psychological well being disaster drove to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport with a semi-automatic weapon in his truck.
“Twenty-seven or extra lives might have been misplaced in the present day,” Dickens mentioned throughout a press convention.
The suspect, recognized as 49-year-old Billy Joe Cagle, appeared on the airport shortly after 9 a.m. That morning, the Cartersville Police acquired a name from Cagle’s household reporting that he had mentioned throughout a livestream that he was headed to the airport to “shoot it up,” Atlanta Police Chief Darren Schierbaum mentioned.
Officers discovered Cagle’s Chevrolet truck parked outdoors the airport on the South Terminal. Within the backseat, they found a Springfield AR-15 assault rifle and 27 rounds of ammunition, Schierbaum mentioned.
Courtesy of the Atlanta Police Division
After receiving the alert with Cagle’s picture and outline, two officers discovered him strolling contained in the South Terminal. Schierbaum mentioned investigators consider he was scouting the world earlier than he deliberate to return to his truck and gather his weapon. In physique digicam footage, Cagle informed the officers that he had been dropped off on the airport and “was simply right here.”
Cagle was taken into custody within the terminal, lower than quarter-hour after the Atlanta Police Division acquired the data from Cartersville regulation enforcement and about 25 minutes since he parked on the property.
Courtesy of the Atlanta Police Division 
Schierbaum thanked Cagle’s household for serving to avert what he mentioned might have turn into a tragedy.
“At present is the way it ought to work,” Schierbaum mentioned. “Group, regulation enforcement, devoted women and men carrying the uniform and skilled to reply when their group wants them.”
Dickens in contrast the incident to the current lethal taking pictures on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and up to date circumstances involving psychological well being and weapons round Atlanta.
“We’re experiencing throughout the nation and even on this metropolis the place weapons and psychological well being collectively could be lethal,” he mentioned. “We’re grateful this disaster was averted in the present day.”
Cagle is charged with terroristic threats, felony try to commit aggravated assault, possession of a firearm in the course of the fee of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
