A 63-year-old man who slashed at TSA officers and attacked them with wasp spray was shot by a Sheriff's deputy Friday night at New Orleans international airport. It was later found out that he had six homemade bombs in a bag, officials said on Saturday.
The man, Richard White, who is unconscious and in critical condition in a local hospital, dropped a bag that contained six half-pint mason jars with cloth wicks in gasoline, commonly known as a molotov cocktails, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said at a news conference.
The bag also contained a barbecue lighter, he said.
In White's car, which was found at the airport, officials found smoke bombs, an acetylene tank, a freon tank and an oxygen tank. Normand said the purpose of the tanks is unknown.
Carol, a TSA agent who did not give her last name at the news conference, praised Lieutenant Heather Slyve of the sheriff's office, who shot White at the scene.
"Officer Slyve is my hero," Carol said. "She probably saved my life because he was within inches of whacking me. ... She saved a lot of people's lives. This man was swinging very hard with the machete."
