3 Ohio Officers Hurt During Airport Scuffle
Story by nbc4i.com
Police said they would charge a man with assaulting airport police officers after an incident that allegedly took place on Tuesday morning.
At about 5 a.m., passengers complained about the unusual behavior of a man in the Port Columbus International Airport terminal, NBC 4 's Duarte Geraldino reported.
"We watched him for awhile and he started making comments that didn't make sense," said Chief Richard Morgan, of Port Authority police.
According to the incident report, three officers went to speak with Atu Thompson, who tried to evade them.
"At one point, it looked like he was going to try to jump off the ticketing level down to the tunneling area," Morgan said.
Police said Thompson took the escalator to the lower level. That's where police cornered him and tried to handcuff him.
"When they started talking to him and patting him down for weapons, that's when he basically went off and started assaulting all the officers," Morgan said.
Morgan said before Thompson was handcuffed, he managed to kick an officer in the face and punch another in the head so hard, that the injury required 10 stitches, Geraldino reported.
Police said after the alleged assault, Thompson began running, forcing them to use Mace.
The man and the officers -- Clarence Keckler, Dean Eby and Jerome Weber -- were taken to Mount Carmel East Hospital.
TASER would have cost less than those three workers comp claims are going to run.