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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Oklahoma City Airport Shooting Was Premeditated

The man who killed the father of Kansas City Chiefs long snapper James Winchester at the Oklahoma City airport camped out in his vehicle there for more than a day before he killed Michael Winchester and then himself, police said.

Kelsey Jukam

OKLAHOMA CITY (CN) — The man who killed the father of Kansas City Chiefs long snapper James Winchester at the Oklahoma City airport camped out in his vehicle there for more than a day before he killed Michael Winchester and then himself, police said.

Lloyd Buie, 45, parked his pickup truck in an airport garage for more than a day before shooting 52-year-old Michael Winchester on Tuesday, Oklahoma City police said.

Winchester was a ramp supervisor who had worked for Southwest Airlines for 20 years.

Buie shot him from the fourth floor of the parking garage from about 50 yards away as Winchester was leaving work and walking to his car a few minutes before 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oklahoma City police said.

Police said in a statement that they believe the crime was premeditated, and that Buie may been retaliating “against circumstances leading up to his resignation.” Buie was a ramp agent for Southwest, police Capt. Paco Balderrama said at a new conference Wednesday.

Buie quit in April 2015 after he refused to take an alcohol screening test, according to The Associated Press.

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King told the AP that co-workers had suspected Buie was under the influence at work, but would not say whether Winchester, who was not Buie’s immediate supervisor, was involved.

On "We know his intention was to go to the airport to hurt someone," Balderrama told the AP Wednesday. "The suspect knew where the employees parked and where they would be walking."

Police found Buie dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in his pickup truck in the parking garage about three hours after the shooting. They used a robot to determine whether he was dead or alive before giving the all-clear.

The shooting stopped operations at Will Rogers World Airport for five hours as police conducted an “expansive sweep,” and air traffic control stopped all aircraft, airport officials said. The ground stop was lifted at 6 p.m. that day, and all airlines resumed their regular schedules Wednesday.

Buie had no criminal record, but court documents show he was more than $250,000 in debt and had filed for bankruptcy in September. On the bankruptcy filing, he listed a gun worth $2,000 among his possessions.

Categories / Criminal

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