Akinyela Sawa Taylor, who stabbed three folks on a Belize flight, is rumoured to be a US veteran and trainer, and fewer than two years in the past printed a e-book with a troubling message a couple of ‘imaginative and prescient’
Many individuals hate flying, harbouring fears of crashes, turbulence, or terrorism. And a type of fears got here true for 14 unfortunate passengers and two crew members who discovered themselves hijacked at knifepoint quickly after takeoff.
The aircraft began circling because the incident unravelled, and was even adopted by a helicopter in the direction of the top of its journey as police communicated with a passenger by way of textual content. Pilot Howell Grange was one of many three folks stabbed in the course of the horrifying flight, however miraculously managed to land the aircraft regardless of deep wounds on his proper arm, again, and even his face. Whereas there was no lack of life on the aircraft bar the knifeman himself, many individuals stay unsettled as authorities strive to determine many mysteries behind the hijacking.
A US citizen has now been recognized as the person who hijacked a Tropic Air flight in Belize on April 17. Within the terrifying incident, Akinyela Sawa Taylor, 49, revealed and brandished a knife, happening to stab pilot Howell Grange and two passengers, named as Fitzgerald Brown and Jair Castañeda.
There’s an ongoing investigation in place in each America and Belize, with many questions nonetheless unanswered. Police state that simply days previous to his assault, Taylor had been denied entry into Belize – so how did he get himself into the nation?
It’s additionally mentioned that Taylor pulled the knife in an try to get the home flight to refuel and go away Belize, however unknown the place he wished to go and why. Most clearly, authorities are nonetheless making an attempt to determine his motivations and the way he bought the knife onto the aircraft.
Taylor is now useless, having been shot within the chest by a fellow passenger who was legally carrying a firearm – stopping what may have been a mass catastrophe with 14 passengers on the small Cessna Caravan V3HIG utility plane. Regardless of police not with the ability to query the hijacker, some particulars of his previous have emerged.
Police Commissioner Chester Williams spoke at a convention after the horror flight, and mentioned it appeared that Taylor was a US veteran, who, in photographs of his passport, was born in California on February 19, 1976. In the meantime, the US Embassy, who’re serving to Belize of their investigation into Taylor, mentioned that it had no particulars on Taylor’s background or motivation, in response to Reuters.
The outlet reviews that Philip SW Goldson Worldwide Airport, which declared a state of emergency on the time, had shed extra mild on his previous. The airport claimed that Taylor labored as a trainer, having beforehand coached soccer on the McCluer North Excessive Faculty in Florissant, Missouri.
The Ferguson-Florissant Faculty District has launched a press release on Taylor’s employment, clarifying that he was an assistant soccer coach at the highschool from June 2018 to February 2019, however is “now not affiliated with the District in any capability,” in response to Channel 5 Belize.
Taylor’s household has additionally now spoken out, expressing shock on the information and claiming he appeared in good psychological well being simply a few weeks earlier than finishing up the hijacking.
His nephew, from St. Louis, Missouri – an space the place Taylor is thought to have many connections – mentioned: “I do not assume he would do one thing like this. He was okay after I final noticed him two weeks in the past. He wasn’t on any medicine. No indicators of PTSD. This can be a large shock to me and the remainder of our household.”
In a wierd twist, Taylor additionally lately appeared to have printed a e-book about redemption partly primarily based on his personal experiences. Journey of the Mire: The Calling was launched on August 14, 2023 underneath the pen title Tommie Taylor III, and encompasses a essential character known as Akinyela alongside together with a photograph of Taylor on the again.
In a single part of the novel as out there on Amazon, Tommie Taylor III wrote: “The imaginative and prescient had etched itself in Akinyela’s soul, a beacon of function that burned brighter than any star within the sky. It beckoned him to embark on a deadly journey by the Mire, a treacherous panorama of swamps, murky waters, and ever-shifting paths.”
