ATLANTA — An Atlanta Police lieutenant, along with a taxi driver and woman, are in stable condition Wednesday night after being stabbed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport earlier in the evening.
Several passengers who were waiting in line to go through security witnessed the frightening ordeal inside the south terminal. Some of them even felt the repercussions after getting pepper spray in their eyes, noses and mouths that was used to help subdue the suspect.
Latoria Boyd was one of those passengers who was in Atlanta for the day on a business trip. She said she was in the TSA PreCheck line waiting to be screened for her flight back to Florida Wednesday afternoon.
She said out of the corner of her eye, "I could see the young lady walking backwards." Boyd said it wasn't until a few seconds later she noticed an officer with a rifle which caught her attention.
She said a few seconds later, more officers were surrounding this woman. Boyd said she also realized the woman was holding a knife.
"It was a good-sized knife. It wasn't like a small pocket knife," she explained.
Boyd didn't know at the time, but Atlanta Police officers had responded to a driver who had been stabbed inside his taxi outside the north terminal. APD said they are still investigating what led up to the stabbing and why the woman was even at the airport.
11Alive spotted the taxi van being loaded onto a wrecker just after 7 p.m., with a number of marked and unmarked APD vehicles lined up beside the vehicle.
APD said after the woman stabbed the driver and then entered the south terminal. It was a few minutes later police started to engage with the woman just feet from Boyd in the TSA PreCheck line.
"And she's like, 'Yeah, make sure you post this. So now everybody's looking, but we see all of these guns pointed directly at us,"' Boyd explained.
She said as the officers had her surrounded, the woman was still waiving the knife around. They noticed an Atlanta Police officer start to move in behind the suspect.
"Her peripheral vision was very good," Boyd said. "So she saw him coming and she immediately turned the knife, started you know like cutting him with the knife."
"He falls the ground, like hard," Boyd said about the officer who was stabbed in the leg and was bleeding quite a bit.
She said once the officer was stabbed, officers quickly started to move in toward the suspect.
"I'm thinking 'Lord they're going to shoot her, they're going to shoot her,"' she explained.
However no shots were fired. APD said a Taser was used along with pepper spray before an officer was able to tackle the woman and disarm her.
"If they had shot her, it would have been clearly justifiable," Boyd explained. "But I'm pretty sure they were cautious because we were directly behind her."
Atlanta Police said in between the taxi driver being stabbed and their officer, a woman was also stabbed. They didn't elaborate on the seconds leading up to the woman being stabbed.
It's certainly an airport experience Boyd said she will never forget.
"Yes, one for the books," she said.
Boyd also wanted to make sure APD received praise for their actions during the chaotic moments surrounded by so many innocent bystanders.
"I definitely have to give Atlanta PD kudos. Everyone was extremely composed when her behavior was extremely erratic. You didn't know what was going to happen," Boyd explained.
As of late Wednesday night, APD had not identified the suspect or announced what charges she may be facing.
