A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

Tuesday, February 4 started out as a relatively normal morning for Justen Spinks, chief pilot for Wholesale Electric Supply’s flight department that is based at Signature Aviation at Texarkana Regional Airport (KTXK) on the Texas-Arkansas border.&nbsp;It was 7:30 a.m. and Spinks had just learned that the day’s scheduled flight in the company’s Cessna Citation XLS+ had been canceled.
“I was kind of getting ready to maybe head to the gym and call it a day since our flight canceled when I heard a lot of commotion,” he told AIN in an exclusive interview.
As he got up from his desk to see what was going on, several of the FBO workers ran into the hangar offices and told him there was a gunman in the terminal.
Just moments earlier a teenager carrying an assault rifle entered the FBO, placed a handgun on the counter, and informed the customer service agent (CSR) on duty that he wanted an airplane. Under the guise of assisting with his demand, the CSR managed to get away and swiftly alerted the police as the gunman forced open a door to the ramp and exited the building.
“I had windows looking onto the ramp and spotted him,” said Spinks who joined the people fleeing out the back of the hangar into the parking lot behind it. “I keep a pistol in my truck and was I able to see [the gunman] while standing behind my truck and I could see that I could make my way back into the hangar.”
Gun in hand, but with no military or law enforcement experience, he crept back into the hangar and cautiously peeked around the corner. “There he was, at that point I didn’t know he was a teenager—fairly tall, wearing almost all black, with a backpack and assault rifle,” recalled Spinks. “He was crouched down, maybe getting into the backpack when I saw him. That’s when I came around the corner pointed my gun at him and let myself be known to him, I think I surprised him. I walked toward him as briskly as I could and he complied.”
At Spinks’ command, the teen lay on the ground as Spinks approached and kicked the loaded rifle out of reach. “He kept his hands behind his back, I searched him at one point, kept my knee in his back, basically sat on him and held that position pretty much until officers arrived.”
During the wait, Spinks conversed with his captive. “I noticed at that time he was a young kid and I asked him, ‘Why did you do this? What are you doing?’” The response he got was chilling. “I can’t quote him verbatim, but he started telling me that he either wanted to go to jail or wanted to be killed.”
The youth went on to describe his troubled home life that involved interactions with child protective services. “He wasn’t deranged, he wasn’t psychotic like you imagine a mass shooter might be. It just felt like he was at the end of his rope,” said Spinks. “It was very sad.”
After what seemed like hours but was only a matter of minutes, authorities arrived and took the suspect into custody. Spinks was then interviewed by numerous law enforcement officials and learned there was a loaded handgun in the teen’s backpack and a shotgun in the car he had driven as an underage youth to the airport.
That night Spinks slept for less than an hour, his mind churning over the day’s events. “I guess I just realized how bad it could have been,” he explained. “I’m just so glad I didn’t have to kill a 15-year-old kid, I have a 16-year-old son,“ he noted, with his voice cracking with emotion. “That would have been a hard one to swallow for sure.”
Asked why he went back into the hangar when he had the opportunity to escape and let trained professionals handle the situation, Spinks replied that he knew friends of his were in aircraft on the ramp and believed he had no time to spare.
“I don’t know if I would ever do the same in a public setting with strangers, but the only thing I can explain is I’ve been around that airport for 20 years. I’ve gotten to know those people that work there like family. I guess I was just protective over them.”

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