Man accused of stabbing transgender teen 18 times at Miami airport
The 17-year-old was having a meal on the floor when she was attacked with a butcher knife Sunday. Officials say they aren't yet ruling out hate crime charges.
A man accused of stabbing a transgender 17-year-old girl with a butcher knife at Miami International Airport on Sunday was arrested and charged with attempted murder, police said.
Alexander Love, 29, was charged with first-degree attempted murder with a deadly weapon and attempted premeditated murder, according to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Officers responded to Terminal J around 11:30 p.m. after reports of a stabbing, officials said in a news release. The victim was eating a meal while sitting on the floor when, officials say, Love attacked her without provocation, stabbing her about 18 times in her face, head, arms, shoulders, neck and legs before he tried to throw her over a safety retaining glass, officials said.
How the fuck did this guy get a butcher knife into an airport?
Thank god for the TSA, keeping us all safe from 4oz of shampoo and water bottles, though, right?
You jest, but we all know the damage you could do with a 5oz bottle of shampoo is incalculable.
I’m so f’n tired of this shit. Bonus tired for bringing up the tsa low hanging fruit in an area they don’t even check. I’m not a tsa fanboy, but does nobody here remember security before 9/11? You understand that the reason for liquid limitation is that the combined amount allowed was determined to be less likely to be able to take down an airplane if used to make a multi-part explosive?
The contractors hired by the airlines? All the people they couldn’t re-hire on to the tsa because of criminal histories they’d lied about when applying to the tsa after having worked contract security for the airlines? Lucky if they spoke English? All the ones with fake green cards and the like?
Y’all think that was stellar security? Want privatization so we can go back to security where the bottom line is always the focus, your demise is an acceptable risk at some point when calculated on a quarterly report spreadsheet?
Downvote me to shit, but there is no perfect system. This system is a damn sight better than what came before, and while some might call the tsa “security theater”, the predecessor was barely better than amusement park bag checks.
Security theater is worse than no security at all because neither provides you protection while security theater has additional hassle.
That's cool and all, but they fail to detect weapons all the time. Just because airport security has never been good doesn't mean we can't be critical of them now. They constantly implement new procedures that just plain don't work beyond making air travel an even bigger hassle. I don't think Lemmy users are big on privatization ever, and no one suggested that, but this kind of failure is a pretty big deal. Our demise is still an acceptable risk, except now it's because they hire people who don't give one single rat's ass, pay them poorly, and use all kinds of things that look great on the surface but aren't effective at preventing a guy from bringing a butcher knife into the airport (at what's usually a pretty slow time of night) and very nearly succeeding at murdering someone.
Like I said, there is no perfect system. People are people and they fuck up. All the time. For some reason we have this really messed up idea in our heads that when we place people in certain positions we expect perfection. Doctors. Pilots. TSA. Whoever. Zero mistakes. But that’s not what happens, is it? There’s plenty of bad doctors. There’s an unfortunate number of doctors that fuck up. Same with pilots. Same with the TSA. Have a doctor do thousands of operations in a day. See how many mistakes they make. How many patients suffer for it? How many planes crash, or just screw up in ways that don’t result in death but break through some serious safety barriers?
It’s really messed up that we put people in positions and expect perfection, an impossibility, and then criticize them harshly for failure. The only way IMO to deal with this is to strive for improvement while understanding that people are just humans.
I get mocking the TSA. I deal with them every day I go to work. Yeah, it’s frustrating. The rules seem arbitrary and ineffective. But the only way I can balance this is that we need to compare it to what we had before and look at what we’re willing to implement (and pay for) to improve the system. I never hear of anyone with any decent suggestions, so I get tired of people bitching when they have nothing useful to offer.
E: ironic lol that I said “zero mistakes” while immediately promptly misspelling “mistakes”.
the TSA is not "not perfect"; they're a joke.
it's pure theater. they have basically no ability to detect actual weapons at all, hence why it's a common problem when passengers arrive abroad only to find out they accidentally carried loose ammunition across borders.
there's a huge difference between "not quite perfect" and "completely and utterly useless waste of time, money, and resources", the latter of which describes the TSA.
IF they actually did anything useful at all, then fine, you have a point. but they don't, which is why people are disagreeing with you.
because in principle you're right, that security is required and should be taken seriously....but the TSA isn't actually providing security. they're providing the appearance of security.
He didn't. The attack occurred in the pre-security area.
https://www.miamidade.gov/police/releases/PD240720227799_Stabbing_MIA.asp
By walking through the front doors, as at most airports in the world.
You realize walking into an airport is no different than walking into a mall?
I think one has planes.
And?
Anyone, anytime can stroll into any airport.
Can't you?
No. Tegel Airport, soon as you walked in, you were at security.
It's closed now, but that only means you can't even stroll in at all.
Curious.
Was every person, passenger or not, screened?
If you went in, yes, you went through security. There was no pre-security area.
That would be the least-fun trip to the airport ever.
Not that any of the big ones are "fun", anymore.
I think I can say with 100% certainty that I have never had fun in an airport pre-security area. What's your idea of fun?
You were never at an airport before you were 12?
I was, but that doesn't mean I had fun. It's like going to a government building or a train station: it's a purpose-built place where you have to behave and there aren't really activities. How is that fun?
From what I can recall, I didn't think DFW has anything but baggage checks and ticket counters outside the secure area. You can technically go into the airport, but there's no reason to if you're not a passenger, and security would probably make you move if you tried to sit anywhere.
What about paraplegics?
Wheels stroll.
Never heard of a stroller?
I haven't been to an airport in years where food was available outside the secure side.
I've never been in an airport that didnt have at least a food court, much less several branded restaurants, available in the general pre-security areas.
So, what do non-passengers eat while they're waiting?
Bus drivers, limo operators, other services?
They do what?
Toronto Pearson, Terminal 1
NOTE - Before Security
Top of my head, Pearson, both terminals BEFORE security: Terminal 3: Subway, A&W, Freshíí, 3 Tim Hortons
Terminal 1: 4 Tims, Swiss Chalet, KFC, McD's...
I've been there over 3,000 times.
Yes, mostly they eat the bus drivers, but if a limo driver is a little too slow, well....
Appears not to be a random hate crime.
Or this guy is making shit up in order to cover for a violent hate crime. Since the first thing someone does after getting raped in the ass is to go to a target, get a knife and then go to the nearest airport and stab someone
More likely he’s using meth.
Not mutually exclusive
I think you're giving a bit too much credit to someone mentally deficient enough to commit such a violent act. Still, it is a reasonable assertion.
First time I read that last line I thought it said "Still, it is a reasonable insertion" and was wondering if we had the size of what was allegedly put in the dudes ass xD.
LOL. That works too.
Airports that late are just creepy in general considering how empty they are. I've been in them and rarely seen anyone beyond a handful of passengers and some janitors in those concourses when I was waiting for a late night flight. I could absolutely see someone being attacked in one for any number of reasons. I'm glad she was able to escape and he was caught.
When I was younger a man joined our church and decided to teach Sunday school. He one day attacked a girl just after his class finished and did it as a church service was going on and fled carrying the knife through the congregation up the aisle out the front door. This made me remember this for some reason.
It was all part of gods plan.
That sounds like a horrifying memory and I'm sorry you have to live with that.
Plot twist: OP is the assailant.
Edit: apparently /s was required.
Just wasn't funny.
Fair enough.
I thought it was, it's just that most people on Lemmy don't get that kind of humor.
Thanks.
I thought it was, it's just that most people on Lemmy don't get that kind of humor.
No, we understood the comment, we just thought it wasn't funny and in poor taste. Adding "/s" doesn't automatically make something funny.
Fair enough. I thought I was being misunderstood as serious, but it seems I was just off the mark for some people.
Why are you speaking like there is a mouse in your pocket lol. Just sounds weird to read🍻
Please, continue pretending like not voting isn't violence against the LGBT community
Fine, I'll vote against stabbing teenagers 18 times with a butcher knife
Surely this has nothing to do with the rhetoric of our political leaders
How did the attacker have a knife in a secure terminal?
He didn't. The attack occurred in the pre-security area.
https://www.miamidade.gov/police/releases/PD240720227799_Stabbing_MIA.asp
Where does it mention secure terminal?
The article says “officers responded to [an incident in] terminal J”. Every airport I’ve ever seen, large and small, have had the terminal behind security.
The terminal includes everything from check in to baggage pick up, before and after security, and often includes a food court and shops that are before security.
Maybe you're thinking of the "gate area" of the terminal? That's behind security.
It's been years since I've seen any food or retail on temperature non-secure side of any airport.
It still exists in a lot of cities. Maybe outside USA, but definitely still exists.
The baggage check area often leads to multiple lettered sections with collections of gates.
If the terminal is all of it, what is the letter designated collection of gates called?
The gates. Or the gate area.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_terminal
So it seems the final answer from Wikipedia is that a terminal is the whole thing, and a collection of gates is a concourse, but a concourse is also a terminal, even though the concourse is in the terminal, which means that terminals are in terminals, and the rate at which an airport grows large enough for their concourses to be terminals is called the “terminal velocity”.
Did I miss anything?
Maybe it's a regional thing.
I did forget the word concourse though. I wouldn't use it in casual conversation.
At this point, I’m not even sure airports are real.
Dulles International has a single security and check in area, with all terminals behind security. They may be more familiar with a similarly configured airport
Are you claiming that there are metal detectors and agents at every single entrance at every airport you've been in?
Are you confused as to what a terminal is?
Maybe I should have started all this by saying I’m not an airport expert. I’m a dude who has flown on planes before.
I’ve always understood the terminal to be the waiting area that the plane pulls up too—in other words, the journey terminates at the terminal gate. Yes, I have only ever seen that area assessable after you’ve passed security—at least it’s been that way post 9/11.
If there is some nuance here where a terminal includes some parts outside of security, just say that. The tone I perceive in your post seems to be trying to make me look like a fool, and I don’t appreciate it.
FWIW, I'm a dude who has flown on planes before and my understanding of terminals was the same as yours.
Toronto Pearson, eg, has 2 terminals (1 & 2).
That's what they are named. Because that is what they are.
There are at least a dozen places to eat, pre-security.
I've been there over 3000 times since 2013. And eaten there many of those times.
Top of my head, I've been in 40 international airports, and except for Havana, I've never been screened pre-departure area.
Maybe my understanding was mistaken then? In my defense, I haven't been on a plane in like well over a decade lol
You must be lost, bud. Reddit is that-a-way.
I'm pretty concerned that a 17 year old needing to live at the airport doesn't cause much more uproar, and that many more people are living at airports in places like Miami.
The article doesn't say she lived at the airport...
Shit, different article I read yeaterday said both victim and perpetrator were living at the airport
Could be traveling and was dropped off at the terminal too early to be allowed through security. I've done that---got dropped off at Logan airport at 9 pm for my 6 am flight. It's when I could catch a ride. Ended up sleeping in shifts with some other college students in the same boat, all heading home for winter break.
If you have an international layover, you have to go through customs and then recheck your bags and go through security again. Airlines now (not sure if this is some or all of them, or how long this has been policy) will only let you check your bag within 4 hours of your departing flight. So one time I had an 8 hour layover, where I couldn't get back into the airport for 4 hours.