October 21, 2025 • 3 mins
Graham Carroll, WSB Radio Reporter joins us from Atlanta after police arrested a man who allegedly wanted to "shoot up" Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A man who appeared to be planning a large scale attack,
it says in this story at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta
International Airport arrested yesterday. This is West Michigan's Morning News
Steve Kelly and Brett Makeita Graham. Carroll is a reporter
at WSB Radio in Atlanta. Graham, thanks for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, good morning. How are you guys doing great? Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
A lot of things went right during this because they
did recover a weapon that had some bullets in it,
and was the family that tipped off authorities?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Graham, Yeah, it was a really unusual situation. In fact,
you make that good point that things went right, and
this is something that the Atlanta Police Department wanted to
stress and they were announcing all of this. You know,
a lot of things could have gone wrong yesterday, but
fortunately the family did the right thing. See something, say something,
They contacted authorities. Authorities in Cartersville, which is about a
forty five minutes northwest of Atlanta, reached out to Atlanta
(00:55):
officials and they immediately were able to identify this guy
in the airport and take him into custody. So, you know,
fast action by the police. The family doing the right thing,
and they found this guy, and then upon further investigation,
found that he was carrying a semi automatic weapon with
twenty seven rounds of ammunition and had live stream saying
that he was going to quote shoot it up. So
he really did have ill intent.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, And what I guess the only thing that I
didn't quite get was he pulled his truck over into
that loading zone where he usually you can't even look
funny at somebody in security there, but he jumped out
of his car and he was live streaming during that
time when he went inside.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, it sounds like he may have been live streaming
while en route to the airport. And as I mentioned,
it's about forty five minutes northwest of Atlanta, so I
guess he was streaming as he was on the way,
and I think apparently a family member may have gotten
wind of that stream and was aware of what he
was attempting to do. You make another good point. You know,
you don't generally have the ability to leave a vehicle
unattended in that loading area and outside the airport, and
(01:57):
certainly you know Atlanta's airport is the world's busiest airport,
so security is very tight. So how he was able
to exit his vehicle and enter the airport without incident
is a good question. But you know, once he was
inside the airport, he was quickly identified.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And though there was a lot of yelling, he was
apprehended really without incident. So how much did it affect travel?
As you mentioned that the busiest airport were as your
flight shut down temporarily.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
No, well, no, actually, you know, in fact, it was
interesting some of the folks that were interviewed just you know,
passengers in the airport, you know, shortly after the incident
weren't even aware it occurred, and we're surprised to learn
of it. It did not really impact an airport business
really to speak of. You know, the Atlanta has a
really significant PSA operation, and this happened outside of the
(02:48):
TSA area. He did appear to be kind of scoping
it out, but he had not actually entered into that area.
So it was in the terminal area of the South
terminal of the Atlanta Airport.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And Graham, I guess way too early to know any
kind of motive behind this thing, but in the story
that I'm reading, he is a convicted felon.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, and I tried to do a little bit of
research on exactly what that was about. He did have
a conviction from marijuana possession about twenty years ago. Whether
or not that rose to the level of a felony,
I'm not sure. He does have a felony conviction, which
may or may not be that incident. In this case,
he is charged with several things, possession of a firearm
by a felon criminal, attempt to commit aggravated assault, and
(03:26):
making terroristic threats. He is, according to family members, known
to have some mental health issues, so that certainly factors
into this. But yeah, that past history is near as
I can tell. The only incident that I was able
to find was something involving in marijuana possession.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
One of the best news talk radio stations in the
country is WSB in Atlanta. Graham Carroll, thank you for
your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You bet, Thank you, guys,
A man who appeared to be planning a large scale attack,
it says in this story at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta
International Airport arrested yesterday. This is West Michigan's Morning News
Steve Kelly and Brett Makeita Graham. Carroll is a reporter
at WSB Radio in Atlanta. Graham, thanks for doing this today.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, good morning. How are you guys doing great? Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
A lot of things went right during this because they
did recover a weapon that had some bullets in it,
and was the family that tipped off authorities?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Graham, Yeah, it was a really unusual situation. In fact,
you make that good point that things went right, and
this is something that the Atlanta Police Department wanted to
stress and they were announcing all of this. You know,
a lot of things could have gone wrong yesterday, but
fortunately the family did the right thing. See something, say something,
They contacted authorities. Authorities in Cartersville, which is about a
forty five minutes northwest of Atlanta, reached out to Atlanta
(00:55):
officials and they immediately were able to identify this guy
in the airport and take him into custody. So, you know,
fast action by the police. The family doing the right thing,
and they found this guy, and then upon further investigation,
found that he was carrying a semi automatic weapon with
twenty seven rounds of ammunition and had live stream saying
that he was going to quote shoot it up. So
he really did have ill intent.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, And what I guess the only thing that I
didn't quite get was he pulled his truck over into
that loading zone where he usually you can't even look
funny at somebody in security there, but he jumped out
of his car and he was live streaming during that
time when he went inside.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, it sounds like he may have been live streaming
while en route to the airport. And as I mentioned,
it's about forty five minutes northwest of Atlanta, so I
guess he was streaming as he was on the way,
and I think apparently a family member may have gotten
wind of that stream and was aware of what he
was attempting to do. You make another good point. You know,
you don't generally have the ability to leave a vehicle
unattended in that loading area and outside the airport, and
(01:57):
certainly you know Atlanta's airport is the world's busiest airport,
so security is very tight. So how he was able
to exit his vehicle and enter the airport without incident
is a good question. But you know, once he was
inside the airport, he was quickly identified.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And though there was a lot of yelling, he was
apprehended really without incident. So how much did it affect travel?
As you mentioned that the busiest airport were as your
flight shut down temporarily.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
No, well, no, actually, you know, in fact, it was
interesting some of the folks that were interviewed just you know,
passengers in the airport, you know, shortly after the incident
weren't even aware it occurred, and we're surprised to learn
of it. It did not really impact an airport business
really to speak of. You know, the Atlanta has a
really significant PSA operation, and this happened outside of the
(02:48):
TSA area. He did appear to be kind of scoping
it out, but he had not actually entered into that area.
So it was in the terminal area of the South
terminal of the Atlanta Airport.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
And Graham, I guess way too early to know any
kind of motive behind this thing, but in the story
that I'm reading, he is a convicted felon.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, and I tried to do a little bit of
research on exactly what that was about. He did have
a conviction from marijuana possession about twenty years ago. Whether
or not that rose to the level of a felony,
I'm not sure. He does have a felony conviction, which
may or may not be that incident. In this case,
he is charged with several things, possession of a firearm
by a felon criminal, attempt to commit aggravated assault, and
(03:26):
making terroristic threats. He is, according to family members, known
to have some mental health issues, so that certainly factors
into this. But yeah, that past history is near as
I can tell. The only incident that I was able
to find was something involving in marijuana possession.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
One of the best news talk radio stations in the
country is WSB in Atlanta. Graham Carroll, thank you for
your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You bet, Thank you, guys,
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