Atlanta police on Tuesday praised the family of the man accused of planning to shoot up the world’s busiest airport, saying their detailed information — down to the length of his sleeves — was crucial in helping prevent tragedy.
Billy Cagle, 49, was arrested at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday after his family reported him to police in Cartersville, Georgia, fearing he could open fire at the airport about 55 miles away.
Atlanta Police Sgt. Tywana Jones said she was on the line with Cartersville police and Cagle’s family, realizing time was of the essence.
“I was internally panicking, like, ‘Oh, hurry up, let’s get this information out as you’re getting it, Tywana. Don’t write it down, just give it out right now so the officers can hear what you’re hearing,'” Jones told reporters Tuesday.
“And that’s exactly what I did. My heart was beating fast,” she said. “I’m like, ‘OK, I haven’t heard any gunshots, anything go off.'”
Police found an AR-15 assault rifle with 27 rounds of ammunition in Cagle’s Chevy flatbed truck parked outside the international air hub, officials said.
“I went on to ask, ‘What was he wearing?’ And they told me he was wearing a blue polo. And I asked, ‘Was it a long-sleeve polo or a short-sleeve polo?’ And they were able to let us know that, again, it was a short-sleeve polo,” said Jones, who is set to retire in six months after 30 years on the job.
“I gave out all of that information. I was just trying to give it out in real time as I was getting it, so the officers would know and everyone who had their radio on would have their head on a swivel.”
Each piece of information was crucial, said Officer Myesha Banks, who was the first to spot the 350-pound Cagle.
“He was a big guy,” she said. “Once the description came over of the shirt that he was wearing, the blue polo stripe shirt, that’s when I was able to identify him.”
The officer said she moved quickly to arrest Cagle while trying not “to make the scene bigger than it is.”
“I was in tunnel vision,” Banks said, “doing what I needed to do to just get him in cuffs as quick as possible.”
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum thanked Cagle’s family for taking decisive action to report him.
“That has to be a very difficult decision,” he said. “They saved lives, and they saved their family member’s life yesterday.”
Cagle was booked on suspicion of making terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit aggravated assault and various firearms charges, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, officials said.
Cagle was also charged federally with attempted violence at an international airport, interstate communications containing threats to injure the person of another, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said Tuesday.
Cagle’s criminal record includes a 2000 Georgia felony conviction for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and a 1997 misdemeanor in Florida for illegally carrying a concealed weapon.
Publicly listed property records appear to show he has struggled financially previously.
He was listed as homeowner for Georgia properties that went into loan default in 2007 and 2011, both necessitating sheriff’s foreclosure sales, records showed.
Cagle also filed for bankruptcy protection in 2011, claiming $143,800 of assets and nearly $451,128 in liabilities.
Cagle’s wife, Tiffany Beck Cagle, filed for divorce Tuesday.
In a filing, she said that “the marriage between the parties is irretrievably broken” with “no reasonable hope of reconciliation” because of Cagle’s alleged “cruel treatment” and “habitual drug addiction.”
It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Cagle had hired or been appointed an attorney to speak on his behalf.
There were no answers on publicly listed phone numbers for members of Cagle’s family.
