Search for motive behind LA airport shooting spree
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Police were hunting for a motive yesterday after a gunman opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport, killing an unarmed federal official and wounding seven people.
Hundreds of panicked travelers scrambled to escape after the shooter — identified as 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia — armed with an assault rifle, blasted through a security checkpoint at the airport shortly after 9am Friday.
Ciancia then walked calmly through the terminal seeking further victims. He was eventually stopped when police shot and wounded him.
TV footage showed people diving to the ground at the sound of gunfire and scrambling to escape the terminal.
The agent was the first Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee killed in the line of duty since the group was set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The lone gunman reportedly had a grudge against the TSA.
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.
“My prayers are with the TSA family today and with your fallen. Thank you for your courage and service. Our country is indebted,” Garcetti wrote on his Facebook account.
The mayor also ordered flags on city buildings to fly at half-mast in honor of the slain TSA agent.
While reports suggested Ciancia — who was shot several times — was a disgruntled loner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it could not rule out terrorism.
The shooter opened fire in a crowded terminal of the country’s third-busiest airport.
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.
“He proceeded up into the screening area ... and continued shooting,” he said.
Police chased the gunman, “engaged him in gunfire ... and were able to successfully take him into custody.”
The terminal remained closed yesterday as authorities carried out an investigation.
The TSA, which employs unarmed screeners at airports, confirmed that an employee had died. “Multiple Transportation Security Officers were shot, one fatally,” said a TSA statement.
Late Friday, the TSA identified the dead officer as Gerardo Hernandez, 39, US media reported.
The FBI said the shooter was a Los Angeles resident originally from New Jersey.
Police found a note on the gunman voicing “disappointment in the government” but that he did not want to harm “innocent people,” a law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times.
It appeared that Ciancia was hunting for TSA agents. 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 they “were TSA.”
If they answered “no,” he moved on, the Times reported, citing witnesses who said he cursed the TSA repeatedly.
Before the shooting, Ciancia texted his younger brother that he might harm himself, the Washington Post reported yesterday. This led the shooter’s father to contact New Jersey police, who contacted counterparts in LA.
LAPD officers visited Ciancia’s home on Friday but could not find him, according to the Post.
Some 750 flights were disrupted after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a national ground-stop.
The FBI said investigators “have neither ruled out terrorism, nor ruled it in.”
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