According to police, the pilot of a small plane circling over a Mississippi city on Saturday morning threatened to crash the plane into a Walmart store. According to a Facebook post by the Tupelo Police Department, the Walmart and a nearby convenience store have been evacuated. The plane began circling around 5 a.m. and remained in the air for more than three hours.
According to police, they have made direct contact with the pilot. “Citizens are advised to avoid that area until further notice,” the police wrote. “With the mobility of that type of airplane, the danger zone is much larger than Tupelo.”
Soon after 8 a.m., law enforcement informed the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that the plane had left the Tupelo airspace and was flying near a Toyota manufacturing plant in nearby Blue Springs.
“State law enforcement and emergency managers are closely monitoring this dangerous situation,” tweeted Gov. Tate Reeves. “All citizens should be alert and aware of Tupelo Police Department updates.”
Local journalist Leslie Criss said that she had never seen anything like it in the city and that it was a “scary way to wake up on a Saturday morning.”
