‘Unruly’ man on Breeze flight from ORF to LA arrested, charged
by: Andrew Kiser, Cheyenne Pagan, Andy Fox
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX/WAVY) — A man who became agitated, “unruly” and yelled racist slurs while on a Breeze Airways flight from Norfolk International Airport to Los Angeles Wednesday was removed from the plane after it was diverted to the Grand Junction Regional Airport in Colorado, according to police.
FBI officials told WAVY’s Nexstar affiliate in Grand Junction, KREX, that David Leroy Carver Jr., 47, of Los Angeles, was arrested in connection to the incident, with the investigation into it ongoing. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado said he has been charged with interfering with a flight crew.
However, there are conflicting reports on whether the passenger, who broke restraints twice, assaulted anyone while on the plane. Initial reports noted the passenger had reportedly assaulted others on the aircraft, but the Grand Junction Police Department, which did not name the person, said no one was struck and there were no injuries reported.
On August 13, 2025, at approximately 11:15 a.m., officers with the Grand Junction Police Department responded to the Grand Junction Airport, located at 2828 Walker Field Drive, to assist with an unruly passenger.
Officers learned that an intoxicated male passenger became agitated, yelling racist slurs at airline staff while waving a skateboard. Airline staff placed the man in restraints twice, but he was able to break free both times. At no time did the suspect physically assault anyone, and no injuries were reported. Upon landing, the passenger was taken into custody by the Grand Junction Police Department at the direction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and transported to the Mesa County Detention Facility.
This is an ongoing investigation and any further information and charges will be released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. — Grand Junction (Colo.) Police Department statement
Later, however, in a statement, Breeze Airways said there was a physical altercation between the passenger and the crew, which resulted in minor injuries to a flight attendant and a passenger on the plane.
“Breeze flight MX704 with service from Norfolk, Va. (ORF) to Los Angeles (LAX) diverted to Grand Junction, Co. (GJT) after a passenger onboard initiated a physical altercation with other Guests and Flight Attendants. The plane was met promptly by local law enforcement officers, who restrained and removed the passenger from the aircraft. One Flight Attendant and one Guest were evaluated for minor injuries. Our focus now is on taking care of our Crew and remaining Guests who have been unfairly inconvenienced by this unfortunate event and getting them safely to their final destination as quickly as possible.”— Breeze Airways
Well-known comedian PK Mackey spoke with reporters in Los Angeles and shared her experience on the flight.
“I’ve been flying for over 10 years, and I ain’t never seen a mess like this,” Mackey said.
She noted that “the man behind me said he is drunk, and then the next thing you know, he’s belligerent doing too much stuff.”
Grand Junction Police Officers claimed to smell alcohol on Carver, who they said yelled racist slurs at airline staff while waving a skateboard.
“To be honest with you, he was using a lot of racial slurs,” Mackey said. “So the Black folk, and the Brown folk, we were thinking a lot of things.”
At one point, a flight attendant tries to detain him.
“You sit down,” she ordered.
Before landing, the pilot was relaying to air traffic control, “the passenger is free and he is using what they are trying to restrain him with as a weapon.”
That’s when a man in a white shirt literally picked up Carter and slammed him down in a seat.
“He literally picked this man up,” Mackey said, “and put him down like it was in a car seat. It was amazing. … I can’t wait to go home and unwind, if you know what I am saying.”
“Once the aircraft came in, we allowed law enforcement to enter the aircraft and apprehend the unruly passenger from there,” said Dylan Heberlein, director of operations for the Grand Junction Airport Authority.
When they arrived, officers learned that an intoxicated man became agitated and yelled racist slurs at airline staff while waving a skateboard.
The passenger was allegedly restrained twice but broke out of them each time and started waving an object around.
“When it’s an unruly passenger, the flight crew just needs to make an immediate landing to deal with it, and that was the situation here, and it was enough to need the aircraft to divert to Grand Junction and needed law enforcement presence,” Heberlein said.
The man was taken into custody and taken to the Mesa County Detention Facility upon landing.
Breeze flight MX704 originally departed from the Norfolk International Airport at 9:17 a.m. and was heading to Los Angeles International Airport before it was diverted to Grand Junction, landing there at 11:36 a.m. local time. After the unscheduled stop, the plane did not get to Los Angeles International Airport until 7:16 p.m. local time, or nearly 13 hours after leaving Norfolk.
Passengers were stuck at the Grand Junction Regional Airport for more than four hours while they waited for another plane to come and pick them up to take them to their final destination.
One passenger told 10 On Your Side Breeze gave them a $20 voucher for food and drinks at the airport and provided them with pizza while they waited to board the new flight.
“We have amenities here, we have a restaurant, we have restrooms, all those types of things, so people can kind of come in and decompress a little bit,” Heberlein said.
The Grand Junction Fire Department also responded to the incident.
A WAVY viewer on the Breeze aircraft shared video he took of the suspect in this case being escorted off the plane. You can hear officials telling him to put down a skateboard, and passengers cheering as the man was taken away.
According to GJPD, any new information and charges will come from the FBI going forward.
US Citizens Detained by Officials in Milwaukee for Speaking Spanish
The family members were only released after they produced their birth certificates, a news report details.By Chris Walker , TruthoutPublishedJanuary 30, 2025
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Afamily of U.S. citizens in Milwaukee was recently detained by U.S. officials who questioned their immigration status after hearing them speak Spanish — the latest incident of racial profiling amid the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown across the country. A relative of the family told reporters that his detained family members were born in Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory; people born there are U.S. citizens.
Telemundo Puerto Rico first reported the incident on Monday. Some details about the incident, including when it happened, are unclear, due to the family choosing to remain anonymous out of fears that they could be targeted again.
According to the report, the three family members — a toddler, his mother and his grandmother — were shopping in Milwaukee when they were overheard speaking Spanish. U.S. officials, possibly agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detained all three soon after, refusing to listen to their protestations until they reached a government facility.
The brother of one of the women who was detained said that she had tried to explain their situation to no avail.
“My sister, in English, explained that not only are they American citizens, but that they are from Puerto Rico. They were born in Puerto Rico,” said the brother, who spoke anonymously to Telemundo about the matter.
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Over 15 Navajo Nation Members Swept Up in Trump Immigration Raids
One Navajo Nation official said that “many fear for the threat of being deported.”By Chris Walker , Truthout
January 28, 2025
The U.S. officials eventually released the three family members, but only after the mother presented their birth certificates, the family recounted. One agent claimed they were “so sorry” for the error — but upon releasing the family, officials refused to drive them back to where they were initially detained, essentially stranding them and requiring them to pay for their own transportation.
This latest incident of racial profiling is consistent with the Trump administration’s blueprint for nationwide mass deportations — earlier this month, White House “border czar” Tom Homan said that the operation would likely include “collateral arrests.”
Human rights advocates have warned that the administration’s plan will likely be enforced through widespread racial profiling, and will have “cataclysmic consequences” not only for undocumented people, but also for immigrants who are citizens or authorized to live in the U.S., who may also be targeted for deportation.
Just this past week, more than a dozen members of the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico were reportedly swept up in immigration raids, with U.S. officials refusing to accept their tribal identifications as valid proof of citizenship. In response, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren released a statement advising Diné/Navajo Nation members to “carry state-issued identification” on their persons, “such as a driver’s license, other picture identification, or their Certificate of Indian blood, known as a CIB,” citing Indigenous people’s “negative, and sometimes traumatizing, experiences with federal agents targeting undocumented immigrants in the Southwest.”
Police officer ‘hit grandmother in face with Taser’ in Manchester Airport incident
A mother believed Greater Manchester Police had ‘killed’ her sons after they were allegedly Tasered and later knelt on by officers
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A grandmother was allegedly struck in the face with a Taser by a police officer at Manchester Airport moments after he kicked her motionless son, the family’s lawyer has claimed.
Shameem Akhtar, 56, believed for a moment that both her sons – Fahir Amaaz, 19, and Muhammad Amaad, 25 – had been “killed” by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after they were allegedly Tasered and later knelt on by officers, said their solicitor Aamer Anwar.
Speaking at a press conference in Manchester city centre on Tuesday, Mr Anwar also revealed the “tirade of alleged racist abuse” from a male airline passenger that sparked the confrontation.
Protests erupted in Rochdale and Manchester city centre after a video circulated on social media showing the incident during an arrest at the airport on 23 July.
More footage, obtained by the Manchester Evening News, emerged days later, which showed the immediate lead-up to the disturbance at the airport’s Terminal 2 car park pay station area.
Male and female officers tried to restrain Mr Amaaz and Mr Amaad, who were involved in a series of strikes and punches – with two women officers hit to the ground – before Mr Amaaz was tasered.
Stating that investigations are ongoing, GMP said: “We are fully cooperating with the independent investigation reviewing police conduct, while actively pursuing lines of enquiry into three incidents.”
The family, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, appeared alongside their solicitor at Tuesday’s press conference to “set the record straight … after a deliberate attempt to smear the family”, revealing further alleged mistreatment and details about how the “pandemonium” at the pay station unfolded.
Mr Anwar said the family had been left “devastated and traumatised” by the incident and had also been subjected to “horrific, racist and Islamophobic abuse on social media”.
After the apparent stamping, Mrs Akhtar attempted to pull her son’s head away and thought the officer “could have killed her son at that point”, said Mr Anwar.
Mr Anwar went on: “The male it is alleged as seen in the video then kneels down on Fahir placing his knee on his back whilst he is still limp and he then looks up straight at Mrs Akhtar.
“At this point, the male officer still has his Taser drawn, then using his right hand in which he has his Taser it is alleged he strikes Mrs Akhtar directly in the face using his Taser as a weapon. At this point Mrs Akhtar screamed and held her face as she was terrified that she would now be subjected to the same violence as she alleges her sons were.”
She said Mrs Akhtar later touched her face and noticed she was bleeding from her cheek underneath her left eye and that she was “dazed, crying and disorientated”, with photographs showing bruising to the left side of her face.
Mr Anwar said no officer attended to her injuries as she and her crying, “distressed”, six-year-old grandson were left with luggage strewn everywhere.
A police officer was suspended by GMP in the wake of the incident and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) later said a police constable, understood to be the same officer, was under criminal investigation for assault.
Following the release of the later footage, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, urged people to “take a step back” and allow the authorities to carry out their investigations.
Mr Amaaz and Mr Amaad were among four men who were arrested on suspicion of affray and assault before they were later bailed.
Mr Anwar said the family fully supports the “robust, due legal process” if Mr Amaaz and Mr Amaad stand accused of criminality – but they do not currently have a single conviction.
He added that he is seeking a further meeting with IOPC regional director Catherine Bates over lodging a formal complaint against GMP officers, and also a meeting with the mayor.
The solicitor said: “When they get it right the police should be praised and the family wish to place on record their thanks to the police who for days have had to face right-wing racist thugs.”
But he added: “In our democracy, we have the right to expect that those in uniform will not act as thugs and will act within the law.”
Outlining what he said “sparked” the incident, Mr Anwar said Mrs Akhtar was earlier subjected to a “tirade of alleged racist abuse” from a fellow passenger, a male Kuwaiti national, on a Qatar Airways flight as she made use of an empty seat because she was feeling unwell while returning from a holiday in Pakistan.
He said: “Shortly after making use of the seat, she could hear a male muttering in the row behind her … The male went out of his way over the course of the next several hours to subject her to a tirade of alleged racist abuse.”
He said Mrs Akhtar was scared the man was going to physically assault her as he towered over her “hurling abuse” despite her appeals for him to calm down.
She claimed the male later used his hand luggage to repeatedly bump into her as she headed towards the baggage claim area.
Mrs Akhtar saw her two sons and grandchild when she exited arrivals and “broke down into tears”, said Mr Anwar, and recounted her ordeal, before later noticing the male passenger.
Mr Anwar said: “Both her sons approached the male and questioned him regarding the abuse. The male was rude and proceeded to laugh in her sons’ faces. An altercation then took place.”
Mr Anwar said he had previously raised concerns at GMP’s “failure” to investigate an alleged hate crime against Mrs Akhtar, who feels “betrayed”.
GMP has appealed for any witnesses to the altercation on Qatar Airways flight QR023, which arrived at 7.20pm, the second “violent” altercation at Starbucks at 8.22pm and the incident at the car park paypoint area at 8.28pm.
Qatar Airways declined to comment.
