A Haitian evacuee has been arrested for shirking security protocol at JFK, causing hours-long delay in terminal 8. Yesterday afternoon 57-year-old Jules Bouloute walked through a door that led to a restricted area, setting off an alarm. The terminal was evacuated and passengers waited for hours to be re-screened. Bouloute, who narrowly escaped Haiti after Tuesday’s earthquake, is now facing threats of a legal nature.
To get out of Haiti, Bouloute fled to the Dominican Republic and then flew to Orlando on Friday. He spent the night there, then proceeded to his home in Brooklyn, via JFK, reported the NY Post. He arrived safely at the terminal, but instead of leaving he made a detour through a door that was clearly marked “For Authorized Personnel Only.” Surveillance footage captured Bouloute passing through a first door, near Gate 5, at 3:06 p.m., a source told the NY Daily News. A minute later he strolled through a second door, setting off an alarm, and walked out at ground level.
About ten minutes after the alarm sounded the American Airlines terminal was closed. It reopened at 6 pm but the floor was reduced to gridlock as passengers waited to be re-screened. Charley Wilson, a spokesman for American Airlines, said that flights were delayed 2-3 hours, according to the NY Times. In their search for Bouloute, cops and canine officers scoured the area but found him only hours later at his home in Canarsie, around 10 pm. Like Haisong Jiang, who caused a similar impasse at Newark Airport when he ducked through security to kiss his girlfriend, the JFK breacher—who is of Haitian descent—will be charged with criminal trespassing.
