A 20-year-old woman from Glendale has been sentenced to four months in federal prison followed by 36 months of supervised release after she pleaded guilty to assaulting a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport over a bottle of apple juice.
Ma’Kiah Cherae Coleman admitted to assaulting a federal officer following the April 23, 2024, attack that resulted in the TSA officer needing to be transported to the hospital to be treated for a concussion after she was punched five to six times in the head.
As well as being sent to prison, Coleman has also been banned from flying on a commercial flight for the full three years of her supervised release.
According to an affidavit filed in an Arizona district court, Coleman allegedly went on a rampage after her carry-on luggage was pulled by secondary screening because TSA officers noticed an oversized liquid in her bag.
Afraid that she might miss her early morning flight, Coleman allegedly tried to grab the bin containing her bag off of one of the TSA officers. There was a short tug-of-war between Coleman and the TSA officer before Coleman allegedly elbowed one of the officers in the side of the head.
Security surveillance footage captured the entire incident on camera as Coleman attempted to grab her bag from behind a long metal table before eventually taking a seat on a bench.
It wasn’t long, however, before Coleman suddenly got back up and tried once again to get behind the table towards her luggage. A TSA officer tried to stop her but Coleman responded by grabbing the officer’s ponytail with both hands and forcing her head down on the table.
Coleman then punched the officer in the side of the head three to five times as other officers jumped in to try to free their colleague.
As a struggle ensued, Coleman gripped onto the victim’s ponytail and, at one point, even bit her hair as officers tried to pull her off.
At this point, police officers from the local airport police department arrived at the TSA checkpoint and took Coleman into custody. During the incident, the TSA was forced to close one of its main checkpoints at Phoenix Sky Harbor, resulting in delays for many passengers.
Coleman had accidentally left a bottle of apple juice in her carry-on bag which was spotted by TSA officers as her bag passed through the X-ray machine. As the bottle was not compliant with the TSA’s 3-1-1 rule, the bag had to be hand searched before it could be released to Coleman.
