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A GUNMAN OPENED fire with an assault rifle at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) last night, killing a security agent, creating scenes of chaos and causing widespread flight disruptions.
Panicked travelers scrambled to escape after the shooter, identified as 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia, blasted through a security checkpoint at the airport.
Ciancia then walked calmly through the terminal seeking further victims, and was eventually stopped by police who shot and wounded him.
The dead agent was the first Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee killed in the line of duty since the group was set up following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The lone gunman, who reportedly had a grudge against the TSA, also wounded seven people in the firing rampage.
But he was still carrying plenty of ammunition when he was arrested, said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
“There were more than 100 more rounds that could have literally killed everybody in that terminal today,” he said, praising airport police. “If it were not for their actions, there could have been a lot more damage,” he said.
While reports suggested Ciancia — who was shot multiple times before he went down — was a disgruntled loner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it could not rule out terrorism.
The shooter opened fire shortly after 9:00 am in a crowded terminal of LAX, the country’s third-biggest air transport hub.
He “came into Terminal Three, pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire,” said Patrick Gannon, head of the airport police.
YouTube: CNN
“He proceeded up into the screening area . . . and continued shooting,” he said.
Security camera footage that aired on TV showed people diving to the floor at the sound of gunfire and scrambling to escape the terminal.
Police chased the gunman to near a Burger King restaurant where they “engaged him in gunfire… and were able to successfully take him into custody.”
The TSA, which employs screeners and guards at airports, confirmed that one of its employees had died. “Multiple Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) were shot, one fatally,” said a TSA statement.
The FBI later named the shooter, and said that he was a Los Angeles resident who came originally from the eastern state of New Jersey.
Police found a note on the gunman voicing “disappointment in the government,” a law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times newspaper, adding that family and friends indicated he could be suicidal.
It appeared that Ciancia targeted TSA agents exclusively. During the shooting spree, which lasted less than 10 minutes, he approached a number of people cowering in the terminal and pointed his gun at them, asking if there “were TSA.”
If they answered “no,” then he moved on, the Times reported, citing witnesses who said he cursed the TSA repeatedly.
In this photo provided to the AP, police officers stand near an unidentified weapon in Terminal 3 of LAX
Brian Adamick, 43, said he saw a wounded TSA worker, with a bloodied ankle, board a shuttle bus helping passengers escape.
"It looked like it was straight out of the movies," he said.
Some 750 flights were disrupted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a national ground-stop.
Although there was no indication that other people were involved in the attack, the FBI said it could not rule out terrorism.
"It would be premature to comment on a motivation at this time and joint investigators have neither ruled out terrorism, nor ruled it in," said an FBI statement.
In Washington, President Barack Obama was kept up to date on the shooting. "Obviously, we've been monitoring it and we're concerned about it," Obama said.
This being Los Angeles, a number of celebrities were caught up in the action.
Filming of an episode of the hit TV show "Mad Men" underway in nearby Terminal Four was halted, a crew member wrote on Twitter.
Actor James Franco posted a "selfie" picture of himself on a plane stopped on the tarmac by the incident.
"Some s** tbag shot up the place," he wrote in the first of a series of tweets, ending some five hours later with a more relieved message: "WE'RE OUT! - everyone was calm."
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How many more times does this have to happen? The problem is nearly anyone in the States can buy a gun, if they’re going to sell guns to people on the street at least tighten up massively on the rules and regulations as to who can buy them.
They could do a better job on keeping an eye on their own people first instead of the rest of the world.
I cant believe the FAA grounded every flight in the USA for this! It was a tragic event confined to one airport terminal and involving one man with a gun!
Eh no they just closed terminal 3 at LAX The FAA actually handled this very well in fairness.
Crazy Yanks
Because one person shoots someone in an airport you say “Crazy Yanks”? How would you like it if a foreigner said that all Irish people are alcoholics because of a warped viewpoint about Irish people? Don’t tar a whole nation with the same brush because what one of them did.
Crazy yanks
Liam. One person??? This type of destructive act is more than a regular story that stems from USA. Sure arent we Irish all tarred with the brush of crack and alcohol. Give over
“This type of destructive act is more than a regular story that stems from USA” Deaths by guns in the U.S. are down and are continuing to go down year-on-year, where in 1993 the number of deaths from guns was 7 in every 100,000 people while in 2010 that number was 3.6 per 100,000 people:
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/
Yet at the same time the amount of guns being purchased has risen every year since 2002:
http://www.businessinsider.com/number-of-guns-sold-in-us-each-year-2012-12
So no, it literally is not a more than regular story from America.
These attempts at mass murder have gone through the roof in the US actually. It is far more common than it used to be. Poor gun regulation and poor mental health services coupled with a right wing digital and TV media who have polarised the US population and encouraged delusional paranoia in their audience bear sustantial responsibility.
He went up to people and asked them were they with the TSA? Great plan there. Obviously unhinged
Sounds like a suicide by cop plan that failed when they didn’t kill him
Cue the journalistas to launch an entire thread about the consequences of lax gun laws…
This man had a grudge against the TSA, whether he had the right to own a gun or not, he still would of gotten hold of one or even if by some chance that he could not get a gun there are other avenues that he could of took to hurt the TSA.
Timothy McVeigh hated the U.S. government and he killed 168 people and injured more than 600 when he detonated a bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma City on the 19th of April 1995 and he used no guns to commit his act of violence. When someone wants to do damage to a government or a agency related to it, they will find a way.
TSA as an organisation probably had this coming.
Care to tell us more?
Is journal.ie the only site you’re allowed look at?
I’m interested in your opinion – do you post it on other websites too?
Let’s have real airport security and not just the illusion of security. I’m sorry but batting down old ladies in case they are terrorists is stupid.
‘Cause terrorists never force women, kids and elderly to wear a boom-vest?
I fail to understand people who still believe that guns should be as freely available in America as they are now. Yes people kill people but guns make this so much easier and possible to do so. How many tragic events need to occur before people realise the straight facts? How many families need to be devastated and innocent lives be taken before action is taken? You can say all you want about violent people but fundamentally, by having guns so widely available, you are physically aiding people in murdering people. I don’t understand how that makes sense to anybody.
Yet another great example why there should be more gun control in America
have your say