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Chaos at Dallas Airport as Cop Shoots Man Armed With Rock, Police Say

A police officer shot and wounded a man who had reportedly "rushed" at him with a rock outside Dallas' Love Field Airport, authorities said.
Dallas Assistance Chief of Police Randall Blankenbaker held an afternoon news conference after police responded to reports that the man had been throwing rocks at a vehicle outside an airport terminal in an apparent dispute with a woman at Dallas Love Field airport on Friday, June 10, 2016.
Dallas Assistance Chief of Police Randall Blankenbaker held an afternoon news conference after police responded to reports that the man had been throwing rocks at a vehicle outside an airport terminal in an apparent dispute with a woman at Dallas Love Field airport on Friday, June 10, 2016.NBC News

Dallas' number two airport was thrown into chaos Friday after a police officer shot and wounded a man who had reportedly "rushed" at him with a rock following a domestic disturbance.

Shawn Diamond, 29, is in stable condition after he allegedly threatened an unidentified officer around noon outside Dallas Love Field Airport, said Dallas Police Chief David Brown.

Brown said Diamond was threatening the officers with “a rock in each hand,” and was shot after he made “a quick approach directly at the officer.” The officer shot at Diamond again when he got back up and charged at the officer, Brown said. It’s unclear how many times Diamond was struck, Brown said.

Shawn Nicholas Diamond
Shawn Nicholas DiamondCarrollton Police Department

Witness said the heard Diamond telling the officer: “You are going to have to shoot me,” Brown said.

Diamond had been arrested on Monday for criminal mischief after he drove his car into a cluster of trees following an incident with his ex-girlfriend, according to a statement from the Dallas Police department. When Diamond was released from jail, his ex-girlfriend agreed to bring him to the airport to fly home to Maryland.

“While on the way to the airport, the ex-girlfriend alleges that suspect Diamond became angry and struck her,” the statement said.

Video footage of the incident, released by the Dallas Police Department, shows a man and woman get out of a car near the entrance of the airport. The pair starts unloading bags from the car, but after more than two minutes, the man picks up a traffic cone and puts it through the rear windshield of the car before striking the front windshield with the same cone.

The man then starts hurling rocks at the car before an officer arrives with his weapon drawn. Another officer arrives before the first officer shoots the man, who is still holding rocks. The suspect gets up and is shot again by the same officer.

Bryan Armstrong, who recorded the incident on video, said he saw police running toward a man approaching officers and a door where people were coming out of the airport.

"The police told him to stop moving and put the rock down and I guess he didn't listen and they fired a couple shots. He fell," Armstrong said. The man appeared to still be moving on the ground and around five more shots were fired, Armstrong said.

The airport was briefly placed on lockdown because a number of people who had been waiting to get through security when the shots erupted ran past the TSA workers to get away from the mayhem, Dallas Assistant Chief of Police Randall Blankenbaker said.

"So the airport has had to pull everybody back out of the secure area and recheck them for security purposes," he said. The airport was not shut down, he said.

Diamond’s ex-girlfriend, who has not been identified, was not hurt. "Her condition is fine," Blankenbaker said. The officer who shot the man was placed on leave as is normal procedure following a shooting, and the incident is under investigation, Blankenbaker said.

There were long lines and delays at the airport following the shooting. By shortly before 4 p.m., the airport said TSA checkpoint operations were back to normal.