14 DAY TRIAL // A 59-year-old man has been arrested for bringing a loaded gun at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
News of the passenger carrying a weapon and trying to board a flight prompted a security alert at Newark on Sunday, February 17.
He has been identified as Robert Kellerman of Long Pond, Pennsylvania. He was apprehended at a checkpoint inside Terminal C, at around 6 a.m.
According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Transportation Security Administration screeners found .22 caliber hand gun in the passenger's bag. Christian Post writes that the weapon was placed in his carry-on luggage.
As they questioned Kellerman about the gun, he responded that he had forgotten having it there. Airport security staff immediately alerted the police and he was detained. He has been arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon.
The Star-Ledger adds that this is the second time that Newark Liberty airport security find a loaded gun on a passenger this month.
On February 1, a 41-year-old man from Florida was apprehended at a checkpoint, carrying a 9 mm handgun. He has also been charged for bringing it on airport grounds.
According to a NY Times report from 2012, T.S.A. officers must respond to situations such as this one by seizing the gun and calling the police.
“All we’re permitted to do is confiscate the weapon and call law enforcement agents, who then will take custody of it and determine whether or not you’re arrested,” spokesman David Castelveter says.
When weapons are found in carry-on bags, most passengers explain that they have forgotten even having them there.
“It’s almost always inadvertent rather than intentional,” Castelveter notes.
“If you come to the checkpoint with a weapon and law enforcement gets involved, they’ll just tell you take it back to your car, because you’re in a state where you’re allowed to carry one, [in most places]. But do that in a place like New York and you could be in Rikers Island in about 30 seconds,” he warns.