Police identify Oregon man shot at Las Vegas airport checkpoint

LAS VEGAS – An Oregon man shot by police after abducting a child at knifepoint and running through a security checkpoint at McCarran International Airport has a mental illness, police said.

Michael John Allgood, 19, of Wilsonville, Ore., was in critical condition Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital after he was shot twice at close range during a confrontation with three police officers inside a security checkpoint.

"At one point, Allgood loosened his grasp on the boy and took the knife away from the child's throat in order to lunge at one of the officers," police Capt. Jim Dillon said in a statement. One officer stunned Allgood with a Taser and two officers each fired once with handguns, wounding him.

Las Vegas police usually post at least one officer at a podium just inside the checkpoint, said Officer Eric Roberson, a department spokesman.

Other officers were nearby and able to respond quickly, said Sgt. George Headley, a supervisor in the police department's 71-officer airport detail. The officers who fired their handguns were placed on paid administrative leave pending a review of the shooting.

Administrators on Wednesday also were reviewing security at the nation's fifth busiest airport, where Headley said weapons including pocket knives are sometimes confiscated at checkpoints.

"Sometimes people forget. Sometimes they're trying to smuggle them. Some people don't know," Headley said.

The boy, who had been snatched from an airport concourse toy store while his mother screamed for help, was returned to her unharmed. Police said the boy and his mother, who were not identified, live in southern Nevada.

The boy and his mother did not know Allgood, and the incident was not terrorism-related, police said.

Allgood was being treated at University Medical Center. He faces charges of kidnapping with the use of a deadly weapon and felony child endangerment, Dillon said.

Detectives learned after the shooting that Allgood has a mental illness and a history of at least one previous violent confrontation with police in Oregon, said Dillon, who did not provide details.

Oregon state judicial records show Allgood with only a guilty plea in 2005 to a misdemeanor theft charge in Washington County. In Clackamas County, where he lives, the district attorney's office said it had no other background information on him.

No one in a crowd that gathered as the drama unfolded at the A and B gates checkpoint was injured, authorities said.

The checkpoint was shut down for about 10 minutes, but airport spokesman Elaine Sanchez said flights were not delayed. The A and B gates serve Southwest Airlines, US Airways, America West and Champion Air.