On a Tuesday afternoon in Oklahoma City, 52-year-old Michael Winchester was leaving his job at Will Rogers World Airport when his life was tragically cut short. As he walked toward the employee parking lot on November 15, 2016, a gunman lay in wait. Winchester, a valued employee of Southwest Airlines for 29 years, was shot in what police would later describe as a premeditated and intentional act.
He was rushed to a nearby hospital but ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
The shooting sent the airport into a state of chaos, with the terminal being locked down and flights grounded for hours as law enforcement swarmed the area. The search for the person responsible led them to a pickup truck in a parking garage overlooking the scene of the attack. Inside, they discovered the suspect, who was later identified as 45-year-old Lloyd Dean Buie, deceased from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The investigation into the motive for the shooting revealed a connection between Buie and Southwest Airlines. It was discovered that Buie was a former employee who had resigned from his position as a ramp agent in April of the previous year after refusing to take an alcohol screening. While Winchester was not Buie's direct supervisor, authorities believe the circumstances surrounding Buie's departure from the airline served as the catalyst for the attack. Police concluded that Buie had arrived at the airport days before the shooting, parking his truck in a strategic position to carry out the act. The investigation was officially closed, with Buie being the sole suspect in the murder of Michael Winchester.
