One pilot who threatened to crash land an airplane into one Mississippi area Walmart allegedly posted an extremely creepy message to social media before allegedly taking steps to steal the plane.
The pilot, who has since been identified as one Cory Wayne Patterson, issued a threat to slam an allegedly stolen Beechcraft King Air C90 twin-engine aircraft into a Walmart in Tupelo, which is a town of roughly 38,000 situated in northeastern Mississippi. He ended up actually landing the plane about 50 miles to the north of the town where the Sheriff’s Department of Benton County managed to take him into custody.
“Sorry everyone,” Patterson allegedly stated via Facebook to his family. “Never actually wanted to hurt anyone. I love my parents and sister this isn’t your fault. Goodbye.”
As a student pilot, Patterson is slated to face charges of grand larceny and the issuing of terroristic threats, as reported by officials within local law enforcement. Patterson could also be looking at federal charges in relation to the incident.
“The plane over North MS is down,” explained Governor Tate Reeves (R) in a release. “Thankful the situation has been resolved and that no one was injured. Thank you most of all to local, state, and federal law enforcement who managed this situation with extreme professionalism.”
Per @AP : The small plane threatening to crash in #Tupelo, Mississippi has landed and no one has been hurt. The person inside the plane is in custody.
Throughout the morning, law enforcement has been scrambling to resolve the situation as the plane kept circling the area. pic.twitter.com/nFY4vuKoKR
— Shane Battis TV (@ShaneBattisTV) September 3, 2022
The arrest of Patterson comes in the wake of an announcement from the Tupelo Police Department this past Saturday morning that they were “notified that a pilot of an airplane (possibly King Air type) was flying over Tupelo. The pilot has made contact with E911 and is threatening to intentionally crash into Wal Mart on West Main.”
In the wake of the call coming in, police officials worked to get people out of the area, and groups of negotiators were called in to talk with Patterson. Police officials stated that family members were also reached out to in order to talk with Patterson.
One woman that claimed to CNN that she saw the plane go down in a field stated that it seemed to have crashed “pretty hard.”
“We did see the suspect with his hands up and we saw police detain him without any incident,” claimed Roxanne Ward. “Police were there immediately, which led me to believe that they were following him.”
John Quaka, the Police Chief for Tupelo, claimed that Patterson, who worked as a contractor working for the airports, took the plane as part of a “crime of opportunity.”
Identified as a close friend to Patterson by Fox News, Chelsea Fleming Jolly posted about Patterson via Facebook in the wake of the ordeal.
“He’s a human being. A good human being too. He made a huge mistake today, and it saddens me that the rest of the world won’t ever get to know him the way that I do.” stated Jolly. “He could have ended it all today, freeing himself from all the hurtful and ugly things that are going to be said about him but instead, he chose life and a chance at forgiveness. You, too, have a decision to make, you can either pray for him or you can be the reason that people feel [like] they have no hope.”