Airport and Aviation Security

Federal prosecutors have charged Idress Vinay Solomon, 33, of Oakland, California, with assaulting a federal officer and inflicting bodily injury after an alleged March 10 attack at the Dallas Love Field Airport security checkpoint. According to the federal complaint, Solomon arrived at the Southwest Airlines lane without identification, was sent to TSA’s ConfirmID process, and became verbally aggressive when the system failed to verify his identity. He allegedly punched a TSA officer in the back of the neck, then struck a responding Dallas police officer multiple times in the face, causing an orbital blowout fracture to the officer’s left eye that required hospital treatment. After being taken into custody, Solomon is accused of deliberately spitting saliva on another officer’s arm and resisting as they tried to place him in a patrol vehicle. U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould vowed to prosecute violence against TSA and law enforcement officers at airports “to the fullest extent” to deter similar attacks, as videos of the incident circulate online amid broader concern over strained airport security staffing during the ongoing DHS shutdown.