Author:
Publication: CNN News
Date: November 5, 2001
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/11/04/inv.ohare.arrest/index.html
Man arrested with knives, stun gun
at O'Hare Security screeners fired after weapons' discovery
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A man was arrested
Saturday night at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, when
he tried to board a flight with nine knives, a can of Mace and a stun gun,
police said.
The man may have some connection
with two men who were detained Sept.12 in Texas as material witnesses in
the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, CNN has learned.
Police arrested Subash Gurung, 27,
who said he was from Nepal, and charged him with unlawful possession of
a weapon and attempting to board an aircraft with a weapon, both misdemeanor
charges.
A security screener removed two
knives from Gurung's pocket before he was allowed through the security
checkpoint, said Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for Chicago's aviation department.
The other seven knives, the Mace
and the stun gun were found in his carry-on luggage during a routine search
before he boarded a United Airlines flight 1085 to Omaha, Nebraska, said
Officer Thomas Donegan of the Chicago Police.
United Airlines immediately fired
at least seven people, including security screeners and a supervisor after
the weapons' discovery, Bond said.
In an interview with CNN affiliate
WLS-TV in Chicago, Gurung said he was in a hurry and had carried the weapons
in his bag by accident.
He said he was on his way to Omaha
to visit friends and that he had bought the weapons in Chicago to protect
himself. Gurung said he was unemployed, but then told the reporter he worked
in a warehouse.
Police and FBI agents questioned
Gurung, who was taken to a holding facility in suburban Chicago, fingerprinted
and processed, then released on bond, Donegan said. He is to appear in
court December 19.
CNN has learned that Gurung listed
the same West Hollywood Avenue apartment address in Chicago as Ayub Ali
Khan, a material witness in the September 11 attacks.
Khan and Mohamed Jaweed Azmath were
arrested September 12 in Fort Worth, Texas, on an Amtrak train heading
to San Antonio, Texas. Found in their possession were $5,500 cash, two
flat box-cutter type knives and hair dye. Azmath also had copies of numerous
passport photos.
The hijackers of the planes that
crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon
were believed to have used box-cutters as weapons.
On the day of the attacks, Khan
and Azmath were on a TWA flight from Newark, New Jersey, to San Antonio.
The flight was diverted to St. Louis, when the FAA closed the skies to
commercial aircraft after the terrorist hijackings and attacks.
Khan and Azmath lived in Jersey
City, New Jersey, but a records check by CNN also found a Chicago address
for Khan sandwiched between two New Jersey addresses he'd used.
The Chicago address was the same
apartment building as Gurung.
A government source told CNN that
Khan never actually lived in the apartment in Chicago and never actually
worked there.
But, the source said, "many phone
calls were made to and from that apartment, and credit card bills were
paid from that address."
Gurung's arrest also focused renewed
attention on Argenbright Security Inc., the firm for which the fired employees
worked. Argenbright reached a settlement in October with the Justice Department,
admitting it had failed to complete court-ordered background checks on
its employees.
That move followed by less than
a year guilty pleas by three Argenbright managers who admitted breaking
FAA rules. They allowed untrained employees -- some with criminal backgrounds
-- to operate airport checkpoints, the managers said.
--CNN National Correspondent Susan
Candiotti contributed to this report
