‘Chaos' Is How People Described Moments After Shooting Inside Love Field Airport

Monday morning was supposed to be a normal travel day for thousands of people passing through Dallas Love Field Airport, but instead, it turned into a chaotic scene according to people inside.

Dallas Police said Portia Odufuwa, 37, pulled out a gun inside the ticketing area and fired several shots into the air before being shot by a DPD officer.

Witnesses who saw what happened said the woman was yelling about her marriage.

"She was like, 'I have an announcement to make,' basically kind of saying her husband was having an affair or some sort and she was going to 'blow up the f'ing airport.' She pulled a gun from under her hoodie and shot the first shot in the air. At that point, we all scattered, trying to get out of there, I left my shoes, luggage and everything at the little check-in area,” said Tiffany James who was checking in with her husband Coby.

"She fired the first shot in the air and basically everyone scattered," said Coby, "We were running and we heard maybe 10 more shots after that and we were just all over the floor trying to get out of there."

The couple said they were on their way back to New Orleans after a weekend getaway to Dallas with friends.

“Just trying to get home to my kids, see if my wife was okay, just to get out of there," said Coby.

“When I go to church I’m going to lay flat on the alter and thank God because it was only God that we were able to get out of here safely," said James.

The sound of the gunshots could be heard throughout the airport.

“When I saw chaos, people running and scattering, like I began to kind of panic," said Antonio Chambers who was going through TSA at the time.

He said he had actually just arrived back home to Dallas from Los Angeles, but left his backpack in the terminal and had to go back through security.

Chambers said he didn't have shoes on when the chaos erupted. He ran up the escalator barefoot to get away, but that caused him to injure his foot, which was wrapped in gauze to stop the bleeding.

“Nobody is prepared for nothing like this," said Chambers. "Everything is based off of adrenaline and just trying to get to safety.”

Workers inside said people started to hop over counters of restaurants to hide.

"After they jumped over the counters, we heard about 4 or 5 gunshots and we thought they were right by us, but obviously, they were downstairs," said Janay who works at a restaurant inside the airport. "By the time we could turn around and figure out what was going on, everyone was running, it was like a stampede was coming, so when we turned around and tried to run to the back to get to our safe, they were jumping over. We were scared too because we didn’t know where the shooting was coming from, we didn’t know if the people who were jumping over the counter were the people shooting," described Janay.

Passengers arriving to Love Field had to sit on the planes for some time.

"We got to our gate and everybody was standing up and getting their overhead items getting ready to leave and they said, 'You might as well sit back down because nobody is getting off the airplane for a little while,' and we didn't know why," said Brian Ward who was on a plane from Lubbock.

He said when they finally did get off the plane, everybody was calm inside, but heard this on the intercom.

“They did come over the announcement, on the PA and said, 'Please call your family members and tell them you’re safe," said Ward.

At that point, he still didn't know what was happening.

"We started walking toward baggage claim and it got more and more evident something going on. We saw a woman being taken out on a gurney and there was a guy videoing her as she was going out," said Ward. "My son texted me a live feed from Facebook and asked me, 'Are you in Love field?' and I said, ‘I think there’s something going on,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, there was a shooting.'”

All flights coming into Love Field were held at their departure locations until 2:30 p.m. The airport came to a stop but resumed operations around 3:45 p.m.

There were still many delays and cancellations. Travelers were still encouraged to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport.