2 shot at Phoenix airport, 1 other stabbed, police say

PHOENIX (AP) – A shooting at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix left two people with gunshot wounds and another person stabbed in an incident related to a family dispute, police say.

Phoenix police said the shooting happened around 6 p.m. 9:45 p.m. Wednesday at an airport restaurant located outside the security checkpoint in Terminal 4. A woman and two adult men were shot, leaving the woman with injuries that police described as life-threatening, they said.

The woman remained in critical condition Thursday, while three other people who were taken to the hospital were treated and released. Police said after consulting with county prosecutors, no arrests were made. They emphasized that the investigation into the shooting at the airport was ongoing.

The group of people all knew each other and had a physical fight that caused one of them to pull a gun and fire the weapon, police said.

“I think this was a family dispute that escalated,” said Phoenix Police Sgt. Mayra Reeson told reporters. During the fight, a man fired a gun several times, hitting a woman, woman and a man who was armed with a knife and then cut the shooter, according to police. Another man was slightly injured, the police said.

Although police previously said three people were shot in the incident, they later said two people were shot and it was unknown if another injured person was shot or cut.

After the shooting, a man and a girl were detained in a nearby airport parking garage. Police have not revealed why the group was at the airport and whether they were traveling or there for another reason.

The shooting led to the temporary closure of a security checkpoint at the terminal, the closure of some restaurants and a break in service at the terminal’s PHX Sky Train station.

“Obviously it was scary, it was Christmas Eve, everybody’s trying to get home,” Reeson said.

In what Reeson described as a “completely unrelated” incident nearly two hours after the shooting, she said a man showed up at the airport with a gun. “This man received a text that he thought there was an active shooter at Sky Harbor,” Reeson said.

Investigators say the man pointed his guns at other people at the airport before approaching an officer, yelling at the officer and not following his commands to stop, according to police. The officer took the man to the ground. During the fight, he spat at an officer, the police said.

Sky Harbor, one of the largest commercial airports in the United States, is a hub for American Airlines and a main connection point for passengers on Southwest and Frontier Airlines.

—- This story corrects the number of people shot at the airport to two, not three, as previously reported by Phoenix police. —

Associated Press Staff Writer Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report.