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53-year-old Albanian man enters plane with gun in US, moment he is arrested

Politiko 2025-05-15 17:30:59

53-year-old Albanian man enters plane with gun in US, moment he is arrested

Chicago police arrest an armed passenger with a loaded gun on a plane at O'Hare International Airport. The arrestee is an Albanian man identified as Besnik Ismajlaj, 53.

The Albanian went through security with the gun during a shift change at a TSA security checkpoint last month and boarded his flight with a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol in his bag. The released video shows Ismajlaj sitting in first class when authorities enter and escort him off the plane.

When officers asked him if he knew why they were there, he told them, “Yes, it’s in my bag.” “I forgot,” he told an officer after he got off the plane and was handcuffed. He appears calm and cooperative as officers search his bag and find the gun.

Ismajlaj carried the pistol through security checkpoint 2 at O'Hare's Terminal 1 during a TSA shift change on April 15. A TSA agent admitted to seeing the gun in the X-ray machine, but Ismajlaj reached inside, grabbed his bag and headed for his flight before they could confiscate it.

Another passenger waiting in the security line also gave officers a description of what the gunman looked like. Once he was removed from the plane and arrested, the video shows officers putting him in the back of a police van on the tarmac and taking him to a waiting room, where they read him his rights. Ismajlaj was charged with a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed firearm at the airport. He is due in court on June 9.

 

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