At about 9:30 ET on Sunday night, there was a report of an active shooter at JFK Airport in New York. All terminals were searched and cleared, and it was determined to be a false report.
“There are no reported injuries or arrests at this time,” a Port Authority spokesman said in an NBC News story. “Preliminary investigation does not indicate shots were fired at JFK.”
So that’s a relief. Everyone is safe and it was all just one big misunderstanding.
What caused someone to think shots were being fired? There’s a line in that same NBC News story that may offer some insight.
An official told NBC News that cheering, clapping and banging from people watching the Olympic Games may have been misinterpreted as a fight and gunshots.
How a person can misconstrue clapping and cheering as gunfire and terror is another question, but that’s an answer I don’t have. What everyone was probably cheering, however, can be easily explained.
The men’s 100-meter gold-medal race started at 9:25 ET and Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won it about 10 seconds later. So if the reports of Olympic cheering are true, then it’s almost definitely Bolt for whom they were cheering.
Look for this to cause your trips to the airport to be even more needlessly time consuming. Shoes off. Hat off. Jacket off. Now, raise your arms over your head BUT DO NOT RAISE THEM AND CLAP AND CHEER THAT’S A VIOLATION OF TSA RULES YOU ARE NOW ON A NO-FLY LIST.
(Via NBC News)