An airport police officer fatally shot a man wielding a knife early Friday at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, authorities said.
The suspect, whose name and age weren't released, was shot about 1 a.m. in Terminal 1. He died at the airport. No officers were hurt.
The man was not a traveler but apparently entered the terminal near Door 2 to use a restroom, authorities said. The MetroLink platform is close to what would be Door 1. The restrooms are closer to Door 2.Â
The shooting was on the upper level of the terminal. The TSA security checkpoints are on the lower level.
"This was not a passenger or anyone using the airport for travel," Vera Clay, a St. Louis County police spokeswoman, said in an interview.
Two airport police officers initially confronted the man, who brandished the knife when told to drop it, as if to say, "I'm not leaving," Clay said.
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One officer used a Taser, but the man kept coming toward them. The second officer then shot him.
It wasn't clear from initial police accounts if the man was still in the restroom when he was shot or if he was in the terminal, why the Taser didn't stop the man or how the man arrived at the airport.
Airport police asked that St. Louis County detectives investigate the shooting.
The Lambert Airport Police Department falls under the St. Louis Airport Authority. According to the , the staff included one deputy chief, one captain, seven lieutenants, nine sergeants and 39 officers in 2024.
Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge did not return a call seeking comment. She did not attend the news conference about the shooting, nor did anyone from airport police. But Hamm-Niebruegge's office issued a statement, calling the shooting "a tragic event for our Airport Community."
"However, I take great pride in our response," the director's statement said. "As police responded and county authorities conducted their investigation, we were able to continue normal operations" at the airport.
The shooting comes at the start of the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel time. The Transportation Security Administration estimates more than 19,700 travelers will pass through Lambert security checkpoints on Friday. The busiest day is likely to be Sunday, with approximately 23,800 people.
The 11-day total at Lambert — from Friday through Dec. 1 — is estimated to be nearly 219,000.
Chris Suits waits with his daughter Kahlan, 5, and family for the Frontier counter to open for their family beach vacation on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. The family was unaware that airport police had fatally shot a man wielding a knife earlier in the morning as travel was uninterrupted in Terminal 1.
For about three hours after the shooting, MetroLink was closed for the police investigation at Terminal 1, and passengers were being dropped off instead at Terminal 2 and used shuttle buses to get back to the main terminal. MetroLink reopened the Terminal 1 stop around 6:30 a.m.
The crime-scene tape was down by the time reporters gathered for a briefing before 7 a.m. Travelers were unaffected, with no hint of what had happened, as they moved about the terminal. The restroom at Door 2 had a janitor's cart stationed nearby but no other activity.
Records show no homicides or cases of negligent manslaughter or justifiable homicide at Lambert in recent years. Gun violence in general is rare at the airport. A review of statistics in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program going back to November 2005 shows zero homicides, three aggravated assaults with a firearm and two robberies with a firearm.
Years ago, a shocking daylight killing happened in the arrival ramp outside Lambert. A Webster Groves woman, Beverly Jaynes, arrived to pick up her husband, Christian Jaynes, in 1991 from a Ralston Purina business trip to Ohio. He put his luggage in the trunk and was shot almost immediately after driving off. Beverly Jaynes was convicted and sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Josh Renaud and Laurie Skrivan of the Post-Dispatch staff contributed to this report.
