COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – When police in Washington, D.C. arrested suspected Coeur d’Alene pastor shooter Kyle Odom two days after the shooting, the question for many was how could an attempted murder suspect board a plane with no questions asked?
A 2 On Your Side investigation discovered even with an active warrant out for a person’s arrest, there is no system in place to track wanted criminals on domestic flights.
The 2 On Your Side investigation also found it probably happens a lot more than you think because of a glaring loophole in the system. While passengers everywhere are having their shampoo bottles screened for explosives and other dangerous weapons, they're not being checked for outstanding warrants. Which means, potentially every day, criminals wanted on violent offenses are passing through America's airports.
The bottom line, there is no way to even count how often it really happens.
Pastor John Padula works alongside shooting victim Pastor Tim Remington at The Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene. According to a manifesto allegedly written by the shooter himself, Padula was supposed to be Odom's second target.
While police were still searching for the gunman, they had Pastor Padula under SWAT protection. At that time, no one knew if suspect Kyle Odom was still close by.
“There's a chance that he could have been,” said Padula. “There's a chance he could have been a long ways away, driving. Never did we expect him to be across the country.
Padula said he never expected the suspect to be able to fly across the country, but soon realized that’s how the system works.
Here's how police say everything happened in the Odom case: They say Kyle Odom drove himself from Coeur d'Alene, seven hours south to Boise. By 9:30 the night of the shooting, detectives had identified their suspect and gotten an official warrant for his arrest on attempted murder charges. TSA sources said it wasn't until the next morning that Odom flew from Boise to Washington DC. TSA sources said despite that felony warrant, Odom passed through security like every other passenger, never once raising any red flags.
“It's my understanding that the TSA doesn't have a mechanism that allows them to screen everybody that's boarding a flight for active warrants,” said Detective Jared Reneau of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department.
Coeur d'Alene detectives said at first their search for the suspect stayed closer to home. It wasn't until Monday night, after Odom had already flown to Washington, that the Boise airport was notified to be on the lookout.
“We didn't have any indication that he would travel 450 miles to board a plane,” said Reneau. “And I think as time continued to wear on, and we didn't know where he was going, we started widening that net and contacting agencies that were farther away.”
TSA said its main mission is counter-terrorism, not law enforcement. Each passenger is screened against the international "no fly" list, which is typically reserved for suspected terrorists, but they are not checked against the FBI's NCIC database, which can be accessed by every law enforcement agency in the country.
When asked why, TSA said as a "as a counter-terrorism agency, TSA dedicates its finite resources to its security mission."
Pastor Padula wants to change that. He believes it's a miracle Odom didn't hurt anyone else during his travels that day from Boise to Washington, D.C.
“Anytime, if he'd stopped and had a layover, while he was in the airplane, on his drive down, when he got off the airplane… the devil himself could have told him to do anything else to the people around him at any time. And what a tragedy that would have been,” said Padula.
In Odom's alleged manifesto, he wrote about Martians constantly trying to take over his mind, even during two airline flights in the Spring of 2015.
The document stated at one point, on a plane ride back home, "an older gentleman in front of me kept glancing back... my head began to hurt and tingle." It reads the feeling "got more intense as time went on"... and "was blatantly obviously they were doing something to me, but I didn't know what."
On a separate flight to Albuquerque, Odom allegedly wrote, "I sat next to this huge man who kept telling (telepathically) that he was going to crash the plane... I didn't know what to do, so I just sat there trying to stay as calm as possible." Then it reads, "The second he touched me, I could feel him inside my mind. This caused me to panic until I was on the verge of causing a scene."
Padula said it's clear Odom was a threat, even then. It's why he believes anyone with an outstanding warrant for a violent crime should be screened by airport security and not be allowed on a plane full of passengers.
“Absolutely,” said Padula. “And it's not like they can run. I mean, they're stuck.”
It's a proposal now reaching the ear of lawmakers. Staffers at Idaho Senator Mike Crapo's office said they have "spoken with the TSA, which is researching the situation and potential remedies."
Pastor Padula said he's also been working with Senator Crapo's office, to help draft possible legislation that could close the loophole.
“Now that everybody else in the whole country sees that you could commit a crime like that, and just jump on an airplane and get away, and there's no consequences, or no real security, I imagine that's going to start being the normal,” said Padula.
When asked what Padula thinks it will take to create change, he replied, “I hope and pray it doesn't take another tragedy to where somebody does do something foolish on a plane. We're hoping and praying we can just put something into motion and be proactive, instead of reactive.