Police in Atlanta, Georgia said on Monday that after receiving reports from the family of the suspect, police arrested a man at the city's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on the same day, defeating an attempt to attack the airport.

U.S. Cable TV News Network quoted Atlanta Police Chief Darling Shilboom as saying that the Catesville city police received a report call saying that a member of the whistleblower's family held a weapon and on social media claimed he was heading to the Atlanta airport to "shoot a shot."

The suspect lived in Catesville, about an hour¡¯s drive from Atlanta.

Shearbaum said the man, Billy Joe Kegel, had already arrived at the South Terminal at the time. Monitoring footage showed that he was ¡°very interested¡± in a value zone where ¡°the traffic was very large.¡±He was not weaponized when he was arrested, but police later found an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in his car parked outside the airport.

Kagel was convicted of illegal possession of marijuana more than 20 years ago, and this time faces multiple charges including terrorist threats and deliberate attempt to commit serious harm.

The mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Dickens, said: ¡°This man is in possession of a semi-automatic weapon and has a mental disability.

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world with more than 1.08 million passengers in 2024.