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THE GUNMAN WHO allegedly killed a security officer at Los Angeles airport carried a note saying he planned to murder “multiple” agents, prosecutors said as they announced charges against him.
A prosecutor yesterday told how Paul Ciancia allegedly opened fire at “point-blank range” on Gerardo Hernandez, the first Transportation Security Agency (TSA) agent killed since the office was created after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Ciancia, who used a Smith and Wesson assault rifle and a large stock of ammunition in the attack, faces a possible death penalty on charges of murdering a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport.
The gun rampage on Friday triggered chaos at LA international (LAX) airport, disrupting more than 1,500 flights. The airport only fully reopened more than 24 hours later.
Describing how the shooting started, a prosecutor said Ciancia pulled a “.223-caliber M and P-15 assault rifle out of his bag and fired multiple rounds at point-blank range” at Hernandez, 39, shortly after 9:00 am in LAX’s Terminal 3.
The shots wounded the unarmed TSA officer but did not kill him.
The 23-year-old gunman, dressed in black and wearing a bullet-proof vest, then went up a nearby escalator but came back down to “shoot the wounded officer again,” said US Attorney Andre Birotte.
Ciancia then proceeded further into the terminal, shooting four more people including two other TSA officers, before being wounded in a gunfight with airport police and arrested.
The alleged gunman, who remains in hospital and has not yet answered questions from investigators, carried a note in his bag indicating that “he targeted especially TSA officers,” for whom he felt “anger and malice.”
The handwritten note, found in a bag taken into the airport, showed that he “made a conscious decision to kill multiple TSA employees,” said David Bowdich, the head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
“In the note that was handwritten by the defendant, that was signed by the defendant, we found a statement where he made a conscious decision to kill multiple TSA employees,” said Bowdich.
“He addressed them at one point in the letter, and stated that he wanted to ‘instill fear into their traitorous (sic) minds.’”
The handwritten letter resembled a suicide note, an unnamed law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times. The note also said that Ciancia did not want to hurt anyone “innocent,” just TSA agents, the newspaper reported.
Lighted pylons at the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport, which normally flash in a multicolored sequence, shone a steady blue last night (AP Photo)
The agent killed was a father of two who immigrated to Los Angeles from El Salvador when he was 15, his widow Ana Hernandez told reporters.
She described her late husband as “a joyful person, always smiling” and someone who “took pride in his duty to the American public.”
“He was always excited to go to work,” she said, choking back tears. “I am truly devastated,” she added.
Birotte said Ciancia was shot four times by airport police, and that he had some 150 rounds of ammunition. Two LAX police fired at the gunman, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
An estimated 1,550 scheduled flights with some 167,000 passengers were hit Friday amid the resulting ground stop.
LAX is the third-busiest airport in the United States after Atlanta and Chicago, and the sixth-busiest in the world, according to figures from Airports Council International.
During the shooting spree, which lasted less than 10 minutes, Ciancia approached a number of people cowering in the terminal and pointed his gun at them, asking if they “were TSA,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
If they answered “no,” he moved on, the Times reported, citing witnesses who said he cursed the TSA repeatedly.
“This act of violence reminds us of the risks the brave men and women of TSA face every day as they work to protect the traveling public,” said Rand Beers, acting secretary of Homeland Security.
While officials have not released details about the victim’s state, the Times said he was in critical condition in hospital after being shot in the head and leg.
The FBI said Ciancia was a Los Angeles resident originally from the eastern state of New Jersey.
Before the shooting, Ciancia sent a phone text message to his younger brother that he might harm himself, The Washington Post reported. This led the shooter’s father to contact local New Jersey police, who in turn contacted their counterparts in Los Angeles.
LAPD officers visited Ciancia’s home on Friday but could not find him, according to the Post.
The shooting came just weeks ahead of the stressful end-of-year US travel period that includes Thanksgiving — traditionally the busiest travel time of the year — and Christmas.
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These people must not have seen AIB’s latest advertising campaign – theme “brave”, as it getting up early, sticking to the task and running your business. It appears AIB have become a river of lending to hard pressed sme’s and the farming community. A most disgraceful and dishonest ad campaign in my opinion.
All of the adds for banks are dishonest. They are all giving mortgages and loans to SMEs but in reality this is a charade. You only have to talk to solicitors who will tell you that clients are being turned down for mortgages for the flimsiest of excuses. The current advertising campaigns are to give the impression that everything is back to normal.
Makes you feel good that we bailed the banks out,doesn’t it!
” Brave ” how are you! You would need to be brave…and foolhardy….If you thought approaching the back might make a difference to your struggling. The economy continues to limp along for all those brave hearts at the bottom of the pile while those with large cash deposits get bigger and richer. Only a fool would believe the spin the government espouse. There is no recovery, there is no trickle down, there are still empty shop units all over the country. And it’s too late for lending, what’s needed are grants, vat and tax breaks, lower rates and a commitment to changing the upwards only rent reviews.
I am so glad someone else made reference to that ad! It’s awful condescending Shi*e. the absolute cheek of AIB to put out an ad like that. The voice over is an appalling choice. Completely out of touch with reality.
This is the sort of evidence out there that shows where our economy is truly at and not the crap that is spun by FG & Labour. You can’t tax the crap out of people to pay debt, run a high spend economy and expect growth.
If Morgan Kelly’s recent prediction is correct, the outstanding loans to small business, if called in by the banks, is the biggest threat to the economy.
The gov have been choosing public sector and bondholders over private sector. Every tax hike means a loss of business to a restaurant and most small service businesses out there. Then you have Nama forcing zombie businesses to compete with ligit ones. And if you have survived all that the local council will be gouging the business in return for very little. The Irish Economy seems to be using Atlas Shrugged as a strategic plan.
This is the sort of evidence out there that shows where our economy is truly at and not the crap that is spun by FG & Labour. You can’t tax the crap out of people to pay debt, run a high spend economy and expect growth.
What happened to businesses maintaining proper current ratios and acid test ratios to ensure their short term expenses are covered? The SME sector insisted on maxing out every line of credit they could possibly set their eyes on..and more.
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