'Spaced Out' LaGuardia Suspect Identified

Man has three prior NY arrests
By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2009 3:13 PM CDT
'Spaced Out' LaGuardia Suspect Identified
In this cell phone photo provided by Ron Beard, travelers gather outside Laguardia Airport during an evacuation, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009.   (AP Photo/Ron Beard)

Police have identified the man who staged a bomb scare this morning at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, the New York Daily News reports. Before his run-in with police, Scott McGann, 32, had already attracted the attention of observers by appearing “intoxicated” and “spaced out.” Cops tackled McGann at a security checkpoint after he began clicking a trigger device wired to a backpack containing taped-up batteries.

“He never said a word,” one source told the New York Post. “He didn’t even grunt.” McGann—who had tickets for a United Airlines flight to Chicago, along with connecting flights ending in California—has three prior arrests in the New York area, CNN says, most recently in June for tampering with evidence and resisting arrest. The incident caused hours of delays, infuriating travelers. “People are fighting and are cutting into lines,” said one man. “It's textbook pandemonium.”
(More New York stories.)

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