Regional Briefs – October 28, 2019

TSA Arrests Man Trying to Board Plane With Loaded Gun

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Port Authority police at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport have arrested a man who they say was trying to board a plane with a loaded handgun.

Transportation Security Administration agents saw the .22-caliber pistol in the man’s carry-on bag when it went through an X-ray machine at a security checkpoint in Terminal C Monday morning. The gun was loaded with four bullets.

The TSA says it was the eleventh time this year that its agents have spotted guns at the airport’s checkpoints.

NYPD Officer Out of Coma, Hospital Days After Chair Attack

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City police officer is out of a medically induced coma and has been sent home three days after police say a man slammed his head with a metal chair.

Officer Lesly Lafontant, who fatally shot the alleged assailant, was released Monday from a Brooklyn hospital as other officers cheered.

Police say the 21-year NYPD veteran was hurt Friday by a man who barged into a nail salon and fought officers as they were arresting another man.

Police say the officer shot the man because efforts to subdue him with a stun gun were unsuccessful.

It was the fourth fatal shooting by an NYPD officer in less than two weeks. Some local leaders and advocates have argued the situation could’ve been handled differently.