Police arrested a man at Atlanta’s bustling airport on Monday after getting a tip from his family that he was planning to shoot up the place, and found an assault rifle and ammunition in his truck outside, the city’s police chief said.

Billy Joe Cagle, of Cartersville, Georgia, had described his plan to shoot up the world’s busiest airport on a social media livestream, Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference.

“The Cartersville Police Department was alerted by the family of Mr. Cagle that he was streaming on social media that he was headed to the Atlanta airport, in their words, to ‘shoot it up,’ and the family stated that he was in possession of an assault rifle,” Schierbaum said, describing Cagle as a “convicted felon.”

Cagle, 49, arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in a Chevrolet pickup truck that was parked right outside the doors to the airport terminal. When police went to the vehicle, they found an AR-15 with 27 rounds of ammunition, Schierbaum said.

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“We’re here today briefing you on a success and not a tragedy because a family saw something and said something,” the chief said.

Cartersville police Capt. Greg Sparacio, whose department received the initial tip from family members, said Cagle “had the intention to inflict harm to as many people as he could.”

During the news conference, police showed surveillance video that shows Cagle arriving at the airport and body-camera video of his arrest.

A Chevrolet flatbed pickup truck is seen arriving curbside at the airport terminal around 9:30 a.m. and then a man police identified as Cagle is seen entering the airport a few minutes later. He walks over to the TSA security checkpoint and had “high interest in that area,” Schierbaum said.

Body-camera footage shows Atlanta police officers, who had a photo of Cagle provided by his family on their phones, approach him and start asking him questions before taking him into custody. As they take him to the ground and put handcuffs on him, Cagle can be heard yelling.

Cagle has been charged with making terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon, Schierbaum said.

Cagle was booked into the Clayton County Detention Facility on Monday evening, according to online jail records. Attempts to reach his family and co-workers through multiple phone numbers and emails were unsuccessful. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

Atlanta police will work with federal authorities to determine how he obtained the gun, “which he was not able to legally possess,” Schierbaum said.

Mayor Andre Dickens said “we’re thankful to God” that a tragedy was averted.

“We’re thankful to God and to good information, and good intel, and good people for this crisis being averted,” the mayor said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X, “I am thankful this individual was taken into custody by law enforcement before harming anyone.”

Police arrested a man at Atlanta’s bustling airport on Monday after getting a tip from his family that he was planning to shoot up the place, and found an assault rifle and ammunition in his truck outside, the city’s police chief said.

Billy Joe Cagle, of Cartersville, Georgia, had described his plan to shoot up the world’s busiest airport on a social media livestream, Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference.

“The Cartersville Police Department was alerted by the family of Mr. Cagle that he was streaming on social media that he was headed to the Atlanta airport, in their words, to ‘shoot it up,’ and the family stated that he was in possession of an assault rifle,” Schierbaum said, describing Cagle as a “convicted felon.”

Cagle, 49, arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in a Chevrolet pickup truck that was parked right outside the doors to the airport terminal. When police went to the vehicle, they found an AR-15 with 27 rounds of ammunition, Schierbaum said.

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“We’re here today briefing you on a success and not a tragedy because a family saw something and said something,” the chief said.

Cartersville police Capt. Greg Sparacio, whose department received the initial tip from family members, said Cagle “had the intention to inflict harm to as many people as he could.”

During the news conference, police showed surveillance video that shows Cagle arriving at the airport and body-camera video of his arrest.

A Chevrolet flatbed pickup truck is seen arriving curbside at the airport terminal around 9:30 a.m. and then a man police identified as Cagle is seen entering the airport a few minutes later. He walks over to the TSA security checkpoint and had “high interest in that area,” Schierbaum said.

Body-camera footage shows Atlanta police officers, who had a photo of Cagle provided by his family on their phones, approach him and start asking him questions before taking him into custody. As they take him to the ground and put handcuffs on him, Cagle can be heard yelling.

Cagle has been charged with making terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon, Schierbaum said.

Cagle was booked into the Clayton County Detention Facility on Monday evening, according to online jail records. Attempts to reach his family and co-workers through multiple phone numbers and emails were unsuccessful. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

Atlanta police will work with federal authorities to determine how he obtained the gun, “which he was not able to legally possess,” Schierbaum said.

Mayor Andre Dickens said “we’re thankful to God” that a tragedy was averted.

“We’re thankful to God and to good information, and good intel, and good people for this crisis being averted,” the mayor said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X, “I am thankful this individual was taken into custody by law enforcement before harming anyone.”

Police arrested a man at Atlanta’s bustling airport on Monday after getting a tip from his family that he was planning to shoot up the place, and found an assault rifle and ammunition in his truck outside, the city’s police chief said.

Billy Joe Cagle, of Cartersville, Georgia, had described his plan to shoot up the world’s busiest airport on a social media livestream, Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference.

“The Cartersville Police Department was alerted by the family of Mr. Cagle that he was streaming on social media that he was headed to the Atlanta airport, in their words, to ‘shoot it up,’ and the family stated that he was in possession of an assault rifle,” Schierbaum said, describing Cagle as a “convicted felon.”

Cagle, 49, arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in a Chevrolet pickup truck that was parked right outside the doors to the airport terminal. When police went to the vehicle, they found an AR-15 with 27 rounds of ammunition, Schierbaum said.

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Sep 12

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Sep 8

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“We’re here today briefing you on a success and not a tragedy because a family saw something and said something,” the chief said.

Cartersville police Capt. Greg Sparacio, whose department received the initial tip from family members, said Cagle “had the intention to inflict harm to as many people as he could.”

During the news conference, police showed surveillance video that shows Cagle arriving at the airport and body-camera video of his arrest.

A Chevrolet flatbed pickup truck is seen arriving curbside at the airport terminal around 9:30 a.m. and then a man police identified as Cagle is seen entering the airport a few minutes later. He walks over to the TSA security checkpoint and had “high interest in that area,” Schierbaum said.

Body-camera footage shows Atlanta police officers, who had a photo of Cagle provided by his family on their phones, approach him and start asking him questions before taking him into custody. As they take him to the ground and put handcuffs on him, Cagle can be heard yelling.

Cagle has been charged with making terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon, Schierbaum said.

Cagle was booked into the Clayton County Detention Facility on Monday evening, according to online jail records. Attempts to reach his family and co-workers through multiple phone numbers and emails were unsuccessful. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

Atlanta police will work with federal authorities to determine how he obtained the gun, “which he was not able to legally possess,” Schierbaum said.

Mayor Andre Dickens said “we’re thankful to God” that a tragedy was averted.

“We’re thankful to God and to good information, and good intel, and good people for this crisis being averted,” the mayor said.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X, “I am thankful this individual was taken into custody by law enforcement before harming anyone.”

A U.S. Army soldier on his second deployment died while training in Germany on Saturday, Oct. 18, according to the military.

Sgt. Terell Seales, of Florence, New Jersey, was working as a motor transport operator for the Second Mobile Brigade Combat Team “Strike” when he was injured from “a vehicle accident,” officials said.

The 34-year-old’s unit was training at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center at Hohenfels, Germany, when he died during the training, officials explained.

The U.S. Army’s website said that Sgt. Seales joined the service in 2021 and graduated from the Army Basic Leader Course.

Sgt. Seales had served at Fort Hood in Texas and Fort Drum in New York before arriving to Fort Campbell in 2024, officials said.

Before being deployed to Germany, Sgt. Seales had served in Lithuania in 2023.

The U.S. Army said that Sgt. Seales had been awarded with over half a dozen awards and decorations during his service.

The death of Sgt. Seales is under investigation.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an outspoken accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, alleged that her own father had abused her and suggested that he took hush money from Epstein in a posthumous memoir releasing Tuesday.

Giuffre, 41, had been working on the book with a co-author before she died by suicide in April. In the memoir, she alleges that other men had abused her before she was groomed by Epstein at age 16.

She alleges that her experience with abuse began as early as 7 by her father. Her father denied the allegation, insisting that he never abused his daughter. And in a statement in the memoir, her father said he “never knew what was going on with Epstein” until he saw the news online.

Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts Jr. told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson that he confronted his father over the abuse allegation.

“I just, I said — we know,” he recalled, choking up. “I mean, you were Dad. You sexually abused your daughter. It’s absolutely heinous what he did.”

Giuffre recounts in the memoir, “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” that Epstein showed her a photo of her younger brother, then in middle school, and told her to keep quiet about “what goes on in this house.” She also suggested in her book that her father may have taken money from Epstein after he began abusing her.

Her brother recalled that their father would buy “decently nice things” at points in their life, including a boat.

“If there was a payment wired to him, like it would, would be disgusting, be disgusting that he accepted money,” Roberts said.

The final years of Giuffre’s life were marked by her repeatedly calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his associates. Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 shortly after he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges.

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In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a person under 18 for prostitution. He served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence. Federal prosecutors in New York brought new charges against him in 2019, and he died while awaiting trial.

Giuffre provided federal authorities with information that led to the arrest and conviction of his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre said she was getting her life back on track after a troubled childhood when she met Maxwell, who steered her into Epstein’s path.

She alleged that the two groomed her into becoming a sex slave for Epstein and that Epstein trafficked her to other prominent men in his circle. Maxwell, a former British socialite, was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking in 2021 for her role in recruiting young girls to be abused by Epstein.

Other survivors have credited Giuffre’s bravery for giving them the strength to come forward with their own allegations. When she died in April, Giuffre’s attorney described her as “an incredible champion for other victims.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.