The machete-wielding man from Friday night's attack at a New Orleans airport is now dead from his gunshot wounds he received during the attack.

The suspect, Robert White, 63, was declared dead Saturday around 4 p.m.

Law enforcement officials wanted to question White to understand his motives behind his rampage, but he died before they were able to speak to him.

Friday's violent episode began with White spraying TSA agents and passengers waiting in security lines with wasp spray while waving his machete around at others. During the melee, White was shot three times by Lieutenant Heather Sylve of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. White was shot on his face, thigh and chest.

A TSA agent, Carrol Richel, was wounded by one of the bullets, but her wound was non-life-threatening. Richel later appeared at a press conference and said Sylve was her hero.
White had apparently prepared for far more violence as he evidently entered the airport with a shopping bag filled with Molotov cocktails. The bag had six half-pint jars filled with gasoline with cloth wicks stuffed into the tops of the jars. The bag also had a gas lighter.

While investigating White's car, investigators had also found several smoke bombs as well as oxygen, Freon and acetylene tanks.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu called the incident "an unexpected attack by a clearly troubled and disturbed individual."

Landrieu also added police acted quickly and heroically throughout the incident.

White's wife and children are reportedly cooperating with police. They told the police that White had a possible mental illness. Sheriff Newell Normand of Jefferson Parish said there had not been any previous behavioral clues or episodes that would have hinted White was capable of committing an attack such as this. White lived in Kenner, a new Orleans suburb close to the airport.