Veteran in May fake gun scare at OIA takes plea

A veteran with a history of mental health crises who shut down part of an Orlando International Airport terminal with a fake gun in May pleaded no contest to a charge of aggravated assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon.

Michael Pettigrew, 26, was sentenced to 10 months in the Orange County Jail. A judge agreed to withhold adjudication instead of finding him guilty. “This resolution was agreed upon after consultation with Officer [Charles] Wadley and in consideration of the Defendant’s mental health issues and lack of a civilian criminal history,” said Eryka Washington, a spokeswoman for the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

Petttigrew has no prior criminal history in Florida, records show, though Orlando police officers said they had met him during previous mental health crises.

He came into the car rental area of Terminal A at OIA on May 30, walked up to a Mears Transportation employee and told her he had a gun, police said at the time. He opened his jacket twice and showed her what looked like a gun — police would not know for another three hours that it was fake. The employee tried to call 911. Her phone did not work, so Pettigrew let her use his, police said.

During the standoff, Pettigrew’s friend called police from Pennsylvania. “He told me he wasn’t planning on shooting anybody but was planning on having a cop kill him,” the friend said, according to police records.

Pettigrew pointed his fake weapon at police officers who came to the terminal, including Wadley. A standoff ensued; after three hours Pettigrew agreed to surrender. No shots were fired and nobody was injured.

He was enlisted as a Marine from 2009 to 2012, U.S. Department of Defense records show. He received a bad-conduct discharge after stabbing a corporal in the face and arm in 2011. He was jailed for seven months after that.