A challenge on Friday night by a female Transport Security Agency (TSA) officer to a 63-year-old man led Richard White to pull out a can of wasp spray and spray it on the officer's face. He then pulled out a machete and sprayed a second TSA officer.

The second officer held a luggage to defend himself and fled through the metal detector device and sought assistance from the sheriff's deputy assigned at the Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans.

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The deputy, Lt. Heather Sylve, shot White in the face, chest and thigh, according to Newell Normand, sheriff of Jefferson Parish, reports NBC. Sylve, according to ABC, has been with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for the past seven and a half years. She open fired at White who was swinging his machete at her.

The female TSA officer was wounded on her arm during the gunfire, which caused chaos at the airport. Normand said she was treated and is now okay, while White is in surgery at the university hospital. Some passengers also suffered from minor injuries when they hit furniture while scampering to leave the area.

The scuffle took place at Concourse B, usually a very busy part of the New Orleans Airport.

Normand said investigators are studying if Normand had mental health issues and what was he doing in the airport since he did not appear to be trying to board a plane and his taxi was parked outside the airport, reports Chronicle Bulletin. White has no major criminal record.

Tagslouis armstrong airport, New Orleans, Transportation Security Administration, machete