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Security Breach At Detroit Metro Airport

ROMULUS (WWJ) - A 25-year-old man is in police custody after driving through a security checkpoint at Detroit Metro Airport.

Airport spokesman Michael Conway said the situation unfolded around 6 p.m. Friday.

"A young man in an older model Buick Regal pulled up right behind a fuel hauler and snuck under the gate arm when the checkpoint guard let the fuel hauler through the vehicle checkpoint on the north end of the airport," he said.

Conway said the alert checkpoint guard noticed the Buick once the fuel hauler had cleared the gate and immediately notified airport police. At the same time, other alert employees also noticed the suspicious vehicle and quickly sprung into action.

"A couple of Delta Airlines tug drivers saw that a unauthorized vehicle came through that checkpoint and kind of angled the car over by the large Delta hanger so the car really had no place to go. The driver jumped out of the car, ran into the hanger and was captured by Delta employees who held the subject until police arrived," Conway said.

The suspect was taken into custody and treated for minor injuries at an area hospital. Investigators are now trying to figure out what the man's motive was.

"This person is not a current employee or never has been a badge holder at the airport, so they clearly had no business being inside our fence," Conway said. "We don't really know why this individual decided to do that, but he didn't get very far. This person only made it a few hundred feet over in a cargo area that's very, very far away from the terminals."

Conway commended the courage and quick thinking of everyone involved who helped control the situation and bring it to a peaceful ending.

"In this particular case, all of us who have badges go through training as to what to do when you see an individual in a secured area that does not have a badge or a suspicious vehicle in an area, unattended bags, all that kind of stuff. We all are trained on what to do, how to respond, and everybody did their job," he said.

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