Phoenix airport terminal temporarily locked down in police search

PHOENIX - The busiest terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was on lockdown for more than three hours Thursday as police searched for a suspect in a shooting in nearby Tempe before making the arrest.

Flights out of Terminal 4 were grounded for a brief time as hundreds of law-enforcement officers, some armed with assault rifles, looked for a man believed to be hiding in the parking garage.

He was eventually taken into custody and the terminal was reopened to passengers around 6 p.m. MST.

Airport officials said some flights out of Terminal 4 would be delayed until operations could return to normal.

American Airlines/US Airways, Southwest Airlines and Air Canada are the major carriers out of the Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor, which is one of the nation's 10 busiest airports with more than 1,200 planes and 100,000 passengers arriving and departing daily.

Flights out of Terminals 2 and 3 operated normally during the police search, which began after a shooting at a Tempe gasoline station around 2:45 p.m. Thursday.

Tempe police said a man was shot in the upper body for an unknown reason and three suspects fled in a car. That began a high-speed chase that ended at the airport when the suspects bailed from the vehicle.

Police arrested a man and woman and believed the third suspect - a bare-chested man with dreadlocks and a red shirt - ran into Terminal 4's parking garage.

It was unclear if the suspect was armed and police placed the terminal on lockdown, blocking the entrance and all ground traffic so a thorough search could be conducted.

Police didn't immediately release any information on the three arrested suspects or provide a medical update on the wounded man.