A fatal shooting last week at St. Louis Lambert International Airport has put a bright light on the persistent issue of homelessness at the airport, with a source familiar with its operations telling SLM that airport police make daily contact with people using Lambert as an ad hoc shelter.
The shooting happened in the early hours Friday on the upper level of Terminal 1, with the Post-Dispatch reporting the victim was not a traveller but someone who had come into the airport to use the bathroom. After refusing to leave, the man brandished a knife at airport police officers, who tased and then fatally shot him. The victim’s identity has not yet been made public.
A source familiar with airport operations describes the victim as a homeless individual and says that it is not at all uncommon for airport police to have encounters with unhoused people, especially late at night at Lambert…