No gun shells or evidence found at Terminal 8 amid reports of shots fired in John F Kennedy airport in New York
NEW YORK August 15: Terminal 8 at the John F Kennedy Airport in New York was evacuated after reports of shots being fired, with several news agencies highlighting chaos an cancelled flights at the airport. Officials said a preliminary investigation showed “no gun shells or other evidence of shots fired has been found. The terminal was evacuated out of an abundance of caution.”
A senior law enforcement official said that the incident began when a woman coming off a plane thought she heard gunfire, while two other law enforcement officials said at least one “ear witness” reported hearing gunfire, NBC News reported.
One of those two officials said cheering, clapping and banging from people watching the Olympics may have led to an ear witness’ concerns of a fight and shots fired, the report said.
The New York Police Department was called in to assist.
JFK UPDATE: All terminals searched & cleared. Negative results. All affected terminals will resume operations shortly. No shots were fired.
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) August 15, 2016
A short time later, police say they closed Terminal 1 after there were additional reports of shots fired. An expressway approaching the airport also was shut down.
According to the flight tracking company, FlightAware, all inbound flights are being held at their origin until 11:30 pm due to security.
