A man who boarded a flight at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Sunday without a ticket or identification says he slipped past security and onto a plane to stop his girlfriend from being with the wrong guy.
The D/FW Airport Department of Public Safety said in a report released Tuesday that 25-year-old Damarias Emmanuel Cockerham initially refused to get off an American Airlines flight headed to Guatemala City, Guatemala, but that he had done so by the time officers arrived to remove him.
Airport police said Cockerham was trying to leave the area when they arrived and was reluctant to answer their questions. He soon began crying, telling police he boarded the plane because "he didn't want his girlfriend going down there and being with the wrong guy."
It is not known whether the girlfriend mentioned was a passenger on the flight.
Officers searched Cockerham and found him in possession of only a set of car keys and a mobile phone and without identification or a ticket to board the flight.
When he was asked how he slipped passed TSA agents he replied, "I walked," and said agents did nothing to stop him. Officials later confirmed Cockerham's statement, saying he walked through the TSA Lane 1 checkpoint at Gate D18 without being stopped or questioned.
Cockerham told police he drove to the airport and left his car parked outside at the curb. During an initial search of the vehicle by a canine officer there was a positive response for "energetic materials." When asked by officers if there was anything in his vehicle that could cause harm to people, Cockerham only replied that he'd made some bad choices, police said.
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An explosive ordinance disposal team searched the vehicle and found the presence of chemicals known as "precursor" chemicals, but no explosive device was present. A precursor chemical is one that is used to manufacture some other compound.
Cockerham now faces a charge of misdemeanor criminal trespass.
