Woman Says She Fired a Gun at Portland Airport Because She Wanted to Kill Her Texas Family Members

By
Dan Zimmerman
-
60

 

Laura Patterson, 47, was arrested by Port of Portland police after allegedly shooting a gun into the air near the security checkpoint for concourses D and E. She likely faces a dozen criminal charges, including four alleging attempted murder.

Court records released Thursday indicate Patterson drove from her home in Kennewick, Washington, to PDX to shoot her gun but not to hurt anybody.

“Patterson stated that when she arrived at the checkpoint she unzipped her purse, took out the gun and shot it,” she told a detective, according to court records provided by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. “Patterson advised she came to the airport because she needed to do something because she wanted to kill her family members.” …

Police also talked to a witness who said he heard two bangs and then saw a woman put a gun down on the floor and say something along the lines of, “Is anyone going to do anything?”

A man who was in the bathroom near the checkpoint at the time has said the woman told him the gun went off after she dropped it.

“‘Cause I’m crazy, I guess,” the woman told Patrick Leonard, 58, when he asked her why she’d dropped the gun.

— Fedor Zarkhin in PDX airport shooting suspect said she fired gun on purpose but didn’t want to hurt anyone, prosecutors say

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60 COMMENTS

  1. Well, who among us *hasn’t* stifled the urge to shoot an (extended) family member that desperately needed it …?

  3. sounds like someone in the midst of an adverse/detrimental mental health/illness episode crying for help struggling to hang onto that last bit of sanity and responsibility before she slides into the abyss of no return mass-shooters fall into.

    • Yowzer! Dat be-otch is crazy! And in ultra left Portland(I get regular reports from a fakebook friend who lives across the river in Vancouver,Washington)🙄

    • Yep, a pretty desperate cry for help. Getting mental health intervention is unlikely in state prison. Because of the location (airport) she may have committed a federal crime, in which case she may have access to mental health programs as she serves her time.

  4. She dropped the gun and it went off? Believable? Well, maybe, depending on the gun. But not likely.

    Hopefully she will get the help she needs.

    • Multiple felonies including attempted murder. Three hots and a cot in federal lockup is about all the help she will get right or wrong. If she was smart she would have done this in chicago and she would be out on the street today looking for a new gun.

      • Overcharge, much? Attempted murder? Was there an intended victim nearby when she popped off? Portland coppers will make the most of this because its all about the gunms, eh? REckless endangerment, firearm in airport (I believe that’s illegal in Portlannistan these days), unlawful discharge of firearm.. but attempted murder?

        She’ll plea bargain down and do some time, but NOT gett the help she needs. And the Por of Portland’s HEROICK coppers will put a little more shine on their shoulder brass.

        • Nope, she’s from Kennewick which is a Republican strong hold that voted for Donald Trump:

          “In the last Presidential election, Benton county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 58.6% to 37.6%.
          Benton county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000“

          It is much more likely that she is a republican gun owner from Benton county.

        • Miner somehow I doubt she is typical for that region………or any region and given female white and age yeah probably democrat. Doesn’t matter really as this is more a case of run of the mill crazy

  5. “Woman Says She Fired a Gun at Portland Airport Because She Wanted to Kill Her Texas Family Members”

    I’m from Texas. Not sure why someone thought that was unreasonable.

    • She’s from Kennewick in Benton County, which has voted for the Republicans every election since 2000.

      • Other than proving that you’re still stuck on stupid what does that prove? Do we know if she belongs to any party?

        • “Repeating a faulty assumption does not make it a truth“

          Yes, the fellow above did claim it was a Democrat, which is his assumption.
          In an effort to provide more information, I posted factual information regarding the political make up of Benton County, where the perpetrator resided.

          One may draw their own conclusions.

          Interestingly, many on this list claimed she was from Portland, which shows they did not even read the article before they leapt to their conclusion.

        • Yes and your ‘factual’ somehow is even more tenuous in its assessment in matching up with basic pattern recognition. I get you are just here to troll but come on guy you can at least try to make it fun or interesting.

  7. Could it be an anti-gun false flag event?
    Shoot twice, drop the firearm and then asking if anyone is going to do something.

    …or she could be bat shyte cracra….

    it will be interesting to see how the court handles her case.

  8. In case no one has realized it yet, this incident took place on November 14, 2023.

    There were two shots fired, she pulled the trigger for both shots.

    “A man who was in the bathroom near the checkpoint at the time has said the woman told him the gun went off after she dropped it.”

    The gun did not go off “after she dropped it”. The man stating this, his name is “Leonard”. We don’t know what transpired between him and the woman in conversation, only what “Leonard” said he ‘recalled’ her saying.

    According to Leonard: He was in the restroom, heard the shots, went to the restroom door and peeked out and saw her standing about 5 feet away and asked her asked what the loud sounds were. She supposedly told him the sounds were gunshots then stepped back several feet revealing the pistol on the airport floor, then the woman supposedly told him “I dropped it and it went off into the ceiling.” and that the gun fell out of her bag. Leonard says he didn’t see the woman drop the gun.

    Maybe she told him that and maybe she didn’t. Maybe she told him that so he would not be afraid ’cause it would seem like an accident. Who knows what she actually told, or said to, Leonard at this point or if she even said anything to him at all.

    But according to police … video footage shows the woman stepping out of the bathroom and pointing a gun into the air. The gun then recoils twice while still in her hand, about one to two seconds apart. Then she put the gun on the floor.

    Her putting the gun on the floor after she fired the shots is consistent with what other witnesses saw.

    The gun did not go off from being dropped on the floor.

  9. Probably a CIA sleeper that didn’t go off as intended. The human mind is a difficult thing to manipulate with that level of precision.

  10. I can see why the Texas relatives might not want to come for Christmas dinner, aside from the whole Portland is toxic to normal people thing!

  11. I just love these heartwarming family oriented Christmas stories. So warm and fuzzy. I wonder what her Texas family members think of all this. Why was she at the airport? Going somewhere or just looking for a bigger audience?

  12. related:
    the current longest combat sniper shot world record is held by canada
    they did it in iraq
    but those guys learned how to shoot
    *in texas*

  13. Tionico,
    Pasco has always been a sh!thole, but Kennewick wasn’t too bad. Used to transport to Kadlec hospital occasionally….

    But you are correct. Eastern Washington in general is much different than Pugetopia and Portlandia… Thank God for the Cascade Mountains…

    • “Eastern Washington in general is much different than Pugetopia and Portlandia… Thank God for the Cascade Mountains…”

      I have several cousins in eastern Washington, they hate the crazies in the west.

      • I’m one of the sane ones on the west side. Most of the counties lean red. Unfortunately, the most populated counties are blue.

  14. Seems there may also be a robbery involved: “The airport maintenance department told prosecutors it would cost more than $10,000 to fix the damage to the ceiling….”

    • A lot of airports have fancy ceilings with expensive panels. It’s probably not your typical A.C.T. or drywall ceiling. Airport ceilings tend to be really high. Factoring in lifts, labor for partial demo and rebuilding the damaged area, plus special order panels, $10K could be reasonable.

  15. Make it make sense. The woman fired 2 rounds off in the airport because she wanted to kill relatives in Texas and had to do something?
    Sounds more like a desperate person in need of psychological help. Or needs to stop using whatever substances she is using.
    Whatever, at least no one was injured. But, we know this will get swept under the rug if she spouts off some leftist drivel for the media and courts.

  17. From Portland to Texas? She musta been shooting the dread .9mm. When that bullet comes out of orbit its gonna crater Texas.

  21. “‘Cause I’m crazy, I guess,”

    Well, that’s a refreshing level of honesty, I suppose.

    So… I’ll give her two points for that. Also, -20 for the unchecked murderous rage, -50 for the actual behavior in general and another -20 for talking to the cops.

    So, on my newly patented 0-100 scale of Intellectual Toxicity Level (ITL), she gets -88. Smashing the previous record low of 0 by a whoping 88 points.

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