Orlando International Airport has been the site of a few disturbing occurrences in 2019 from a TSA agent committing suicide in the airport to a woman bypassing security lines and attacking a TSA agent last week.
Yesterday, travelers going through the airport witnessed another odd incident. Around noon on Saturday, February 16, 37-year-old Ryan Scott Mills tried to get past the TSA checkpoint without being screened. When officers were trying to arrest him, he reached into his pocket which prompted someone to yell "gun," immediately creating chaos.
Passengers panicked and ran, some even through security checkpoints.
Mills did not have a gun, but Orlando Airport had to shut down a checkpoint and re-screen some travelers. OPD spokesman Eduardo Bernal said that gates 1-59 were affected but no one was injured.
Chaos erupted at Orlando International Airport after a man tried to breach a security checkpoint and travelers yelled out that the suspect had a gun, police said. https://t.co/X6Ws3VH7a8pic.twitter.com/O7oe1u1MHu
- ABC News (@ABC) February 16, 2019
Orlando Police Department took Mills into involuntary protective custody. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting an officer without violence.
Karla Alexander was at the airport during the incident, seeing her parents off on their flight to Lima, Peru. Florida Today reported that Alexander wrote in a Facebook message:
"My parents were right there at the checkpoint, they had to run to the Seaworld store to be safe," Alexander said in a Facebook message. "As other people ran to other stores there, they allowed people in and immediately closed their doors to keep them safe."
There were a few reports of delays following the incident.
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