A man has died after a struggle with airport security and police at Honolulu airport.
The man ran through the exit lane of security screening in the commuter terminal into a secure area where he was eventually stopped.
"Even after he was detained, there was still a struggle and the suspect remained combative and at that point is when he became unresponsive," Tim Sakahara, DOT spokesman, told CNN affiliate HawaiiNewsNow.
Hawaii police have started an ‘unattended death investigation,’ according to a statement released by the Hawaii DOT.
One member of law enforcement was injured in the struggle.
Police believe he attempted to gain access to an outdoor walkway where airplanes were parked.
He was not a ticketed passenger nor was he armed at the time, police told new station KITV.
HawaiiNewsNow’s Mahealani Richardson was in the terminal at the time and described the ‘scary’ incident.
"All of a sudden this man, a very large man, ran through the terminal and started ramming himself through the doors. It was really scary during those moments, we had no idea what was going on,"" Richardson said.
"We just had to duck down and cover ourselves because we didn’t know if the suspect was going to come at us. We had to protect ourselves.""
A full multi agency investigation is ongoing but there was no impact on flight operations at the airport.
Authorities have still declined to release the man’s name or any details about how he died.
