LOS ANGELES
(AP) -- A man toting a semi-automatic rifle, some 150 rounds of
ammunition and a grudge against TSA workers shot his way past a security
checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport in a deadly rampage
that sent hundreds of travelers fleeing in terror.
When
the shooting stopped, a Transportation Security Administration officer
was dead. Gerardo I. Hernandez, 39, became the first TSA officer in the
agency's 12-year history to be killed in the line of duty.
Five
other people were hurt, including two other TSA employees and the
gunman, identified as Paul Ciancia, 23, of Pennsville, N.J. He was shot
four times by airport police and remained hospitalized but there was no
word on his condition.
Ciancia apparently had been living in Los Angeles for about 1 1/2 years, authorities said.
As
gunshots rang out in Terminal 3 on Friday morning, swarms of passengers
screamed, dropped to the ground or ran for their lives.
Leon
Saryan, 65, had just passed through security and was looking for a
place to put his shoes and belt back on when he heard gunshots. He fled
with a TSA worker, who he said was later wounded slightly, and managed
to hide in a store. As he was cowering the corner, the shooter
approached.
"He looked at me and asked, `TSA?'
I shook my head no, and he continued on down toward the gate. He had
his gun at the ready and but for the grace of God I am here to tell
about it," said Saryan, of Milwaukee.
As Saryan was fleeing for his life, others were hiding behind ticket counters and under tables.
"I
really thought I saw death," said Anne Rainer, who witnessed the
gunfire with her 26-year-old son Ben. The pair were about to leave for
New York so her son could see a specialist for a rare genetic condition
he has.
They took refuge behind a ticket
counter where she said people prayed, cried and held hands. She watched
as one person jumped from a second-floor balcony to get away from the
gunman.
"Adrenaline went through my head, my
body went numb, and I said, `If I have to go, it's OK because I'm not
going to feel it, but I have to save him,'" Rainer said.
Nick
Pugh had just handed his driver's license and boarding pass to a TSA
screener and was about to walk toward a metal detector when the shooting
began. He dove to the floor. Watching panicked people trying to crawl
over one another, Pugh got up and bolted through an emergency exit door
and onto the airport tarmac.
"I thought with
all of the terrorism we've had, get away from the terminal where
everyone is," Pugh said. "If there's a lot of people shooting or a bomb,
get away from where everybody else is. I just ran."
Others
fled into the terminal, taking refuge in coffee shops and lounges as
the gunman shot his way toward them. However, some witnesses and
authorities said the gunman ignored anyone except TSA targets.
Airport
police officers shot the gunman four times, including in the mouth and
leg, during a shootout in front of a Burger King in the terminal.
A
law enforcement official said the gunman was dressed in fatigues and
carried at least five full 30-round magazines of ammunition. In his bag
he had a one-page, handwritten note that said he wanted to kill TSA
employees and "pigs."
The official, who was
not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on
condition of anonymity, said the note referred to how the gunman
believed his constitutional rights were being violated by TSA searches
and that he was a "pissed-off patriot" upset at former Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano.
On Friday,
Ciancia's father in New Jersey had called authorities for help in
finding his son after the young man sent one of his siblings a text
message about committing suicide, Pennsville Police Chief Allen Cummings
said.
The chief said he called Los Angeles
police, who sent a patrol car to Ciancia's apartment. There, two
roommates said that they had seen him a day earlier and he had appeared
to be fine.
Cummings said that the Ciancias -
owners of an auto body shop - are a "good family" and that his
department had had no dealings with the son.
People who knew Ciancia said they were shocked that he was the alleged gunman.
Ciancia's
former roommate in Los Angeles, James Mincey, said he appeared to be
unemployed but never showed any disturbing qualities, such as a
fascination with guns.
He spoke to Ciancia last week.
"He
said he was going back to Jersey, going to work for his dad, and making
amends with family problems ... and spending holidays with his family,"
Mincey told KABC-TV.
Ciancia had been into a next-door restaurant called The Morrison several times, owner Marc Kreiner said.
"He was kind of a quiet guy, came in mostly by himself," Kreiner told the Los Angeles Times.
The
attack at the nation's third-busiest airport began around 9:20 a.m.
when the gunman pulled the assault-style rifle from a bag he had carried
into the terminal, which serves such airlines as Virgin America,
AirTran, Horizon Air and JetBlue.
Airport
police were running after the gunman within seconds of the first shots
being fired, Chief of Airport Police Patrick Gannon said.
The
airport was locked down and its normally packed roads were emptied of
cars. Across the U.S., aviation officials stopped LAX-bound flights from
taking off from other airports, causing delays around the country. Some
Los Angeles-bound flights that already were in the air were diverted
elsewhere.
Throughout the day, an estimated
1,550 scheduled arriving and departing flights with around 167,000
passengers were affected, according to the airport. That included 86
arriving flights that were diverted to other airports.
After
the first attack police, unsure whether the gunman acted alone,
escorted travelers out of Terminal 3 as they searched for other possible
shooters.
Pugh, who had fled onto the tarmac
so quickly he had left his ID behind, was briefly handcuffed until it
was determined he wasn't involved.
