NEW YORK – Authorities said travelers at New York’s Kennedy Airport cheering and loudly celebrating Usain Bolt’s Olympic 100-meter dash victory may have prompted ultimately unfounded reports of gunshots there.
That’s among the possibilities being probed by investigators trying to determine what led to a series of evacuations at the airport Sunday night.
Investigators also are interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage to figure out what caused the chaos.
An internal New York Police Department briefing document obtained by the Associated Press on Monday said patrons started to act “extremely disruptive” after watching the Olympics.
The timing of Bolt’s gold medal success roughly corresponded with an anonymous 911 call from a woman reporting gunshots in Terminal 8. Police said more than 20 people subsequently called 911.
Authorities scoured the terminal and determined no shots had been fired.