At about 6:00 pm Sunday, a man called 9-1-1 in Yakima and told calltakers he had set his house on fire and was headed to the Yakima airport with a firearm. The man gave calltakers a description of his vehicle and said he would be waiting at the airport for police.
Yakima police arrived at the Yakima Air Terminal/McAllister Field and found a vehicle matching the description the man who had called 9-1-1 had provided to calltakers. The vehicle was parked in front of the terminal building with its driver’s side door open and its engine running.
No flights were leaving or arriving at the terminal when police arrived. The terminal was mostly empty. The terminal’s TSA security checkpoint was closed at the time.
Police located 31-year-old Ricardo Ibarra-Gutierrez in the terminal building and placed him into custody. A gun was located in the vehicle parked in front of the terminal. Ibarra-Gutierrez has a concealed weapon permit.
While police were responding to the airport, Yakima firefighters were dispatched to a house fire in the 2000 block of South 4th Avenue. Police later confirmed the house firefighters had responded to was where Ibarra-Gutierrez lived.
Ibarra-Gutierrez was booked into the Yakima County Jail on a charge of arson. The gun found in the vehicle at the airport terminal building is being held by police.
Additional information about this incident will be provided as it becomes available.