Suspect in gun discharge at Atlanta airport surrenders to police

A suspect believed to have accidentally discharged his gun at an Atlanta airport earlier this month turned himself in on Tuesday, Atlanta police said.

Kenny Wells, 42, turned himself into the Clayton County Jail on Tuesday, the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement. The jail is around 20 miles south of Atlanta.

Wells, whom officials noted is a convicted felon, is facing four charges: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, reckless conduct, carrying a weapon or long gun at a commercial service airport and discharging of firearms on property of another.

Earlier this month on Nov. 20, Atlanta police said that while a Transportation Security Administration member was conducting a secondary search on a bag at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport , Wells “lunged into the bag and grabbed an item, determined to be a firearm, causing it to discharge.”

The 42-year-old man immediately evacuated the scene with his firearm, though no other shots were fired. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson confirmed to The Hill in a statement that flights at the Atlanta airport were briefly grounded. 

Police said at the time that no injuries had been reported, and the airport said that normal operations started again after an all-clear was given.

Atlanta police reported last week that officials found Wells’s gun, which was inside a trashcan at the airport. Officials noted that the investigation is still ongoing.

The news comes amid a busy holiday season as flights and the volume of travelers entering airports is only expected to increase in the weeks ahead.