Federal prosecutors have charged a man found walking alongside a runway at the Salt Lake City International Airport.
Richard Lamar Hall, 23, was charged Thursday with entering an airport area in violation of security requirements. The FBI wrote in charging documents that Hall arrived at the airport Tuesday after coming to Utah by bus from South Carolina. He wanted to fly to Boise, but didn't have any money.
Airport police helped him contact family members to buy a plane ticket, and he went through screening.
"Hall did not board the plane; rather, he left the airport," FBI Special Agent Daniel Dunn wrote. "Hall later claimed to have become paranoid when passing through screening so he left the airport rather than boarding the plane. Hall stated that he spent the night in the fields near the airport."
On Wednesday, Hall was seen walking from a Federal Aviation Administration building alongside the airport's west runway. He walked up to an airport employee and asked for help to get to the terminal to fly to Boise, the FBI said.
He was arrested and under questioning said he scaled a barbed-wire fence and fell into some water and lost a shoe.
"Hall stated that he was paranoid, and during the interview he demonstrated symptoms of paranoia," Dunn wrote.
Hall will make his first appearance before a federal judge on Friday.
— Ben Winslow