Police and FBI agents can’t agree on the shouts of a Texas man arrested after storming a security gate at a Dallas airport: Did he shout Jesus or jihad?
FBI agents say the former. Dallas police claim the latter, the Smoking Gun reported. They do agree that Ruben Jimenez Martinez, 36, drove his truck onto Dallas Love Field airport grounds without clearance and in excess of 100 miles per hour, before jumping from the vehicle and entering an area “readily accessible to planes and fuel.”
Dallas police took him into custody for illegally entering a “critical infrastructure facility.” The arresting officers said he resisted and “appeared to be in emotional distress,” according to the Smoking Gun.
He also yelled “in an unknown language and stated ’jihad’ approximately three times,” the official Dallas police report states.
Federal prosecutors, however, who charged Mr. Martinez of illegally entering the airport “with the intent to evade security procedures or restrictions,” saw differently.
Mr. Martinez actually yelled “Jesus,” FBI agent Rodney Sanchez said in the federal complaint. He shouted three times at the gate, “In the name of Jesus, open the gate,” the agent said.
The agent also reported that Mr. Martinez said “he had a vision given to him by God of this same place and that he believed God had directed him” to the airport.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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