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Limo Driver Recalls LAX Gun Scare: 'I Wasn't Going To Gamble On What It Might Have Been'

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A limo driver recalled his fear after he witnessed a 27-year-old San Jose man take out a gun in the baggage claim area of Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport last Friday.

The driver, who wished to remain unidentified, said the woman he was picking up at the airport told him she'd noticed a man acting strangely on their Virgin America flight from San Francisco.

"She said, 'Well, he was saying all kinds of stuff on the plane, causing commotion and stuff like that,'" he said.

The driver told CBS2's Andrea Fujii that he saw the man pick up his checked bag, open a locked metal box and take out a handgun.

"Then he pulls it out, and he cocks it, and when he does that, I go, 'Oh my God, he's got a gun,'" he said.

As passengers ran, Transportation Security Administration workers called airport police. The driver said the man then calmly spoke to him.

"He turns to me, and puts his hands up like this, and he says, 'It's a checked bag,'" he said.

The driver said the man tried to catch a cab, but police took him into custody for brandishing a gun.

Authorities, however, released the man Saturday morning, saying he'd declared the unloaded gun in his baggage and there was no evidence he threatened anyone.

"I don't know what his intent was, but I wasn't going to gamble on what it might have been," said the driver.

The city attorney will decide if the man could face any charges.

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