It may be the start of a new week, but investigators in Los Angeles are still stuck on last Friday as they try to piece together why a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3 of LAX.
Paul Ciancia, 23, walked into the airport, pulled out a .223-caliber assault rifle from a duffel bag and fired point-blank range at 39-year-old TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez.
Hernandez is the first TSA agent to die in the line of duty.
Ciancia then fired at two other uniformed TSA employees before he was shot down by airport police. But authorities still aren’t clear as to why Ciancia targeted the officers. However, he did leave behind some clues, according to FBI Agent in Charge David L. Bowdich.
The shooter’s duffel bag contained a handwritten letter signed by Ciancia stating he’d “made the conscious decision to try to kill” multiple TSA employees and that he wanted to “instill fear in their traitorous minds,” Bowdich said.
The letter also talked about “how easy it is to get a gun into the airport,” the law enforcement official said.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday he had seen the note and said Ciancia’s actions show how difficult it is to protect travelers at a massive airport such as LAX.
Another chilling detail that officers uncovered about the young gunman? His firearms were purchased legally.
Authorities believe the rifle used in the shooting was purchased in Los Angeles. Ciancia also had two additional handguns that he purchased in Los Angeles, but which weren’t at the crime scene, a law enforcement official said. The official, who has been briefed on the investigation, was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
The purchases themselves appeared legal, although authorities were still tracing them, and it’s unclear if the shooter used his own identification or someone else’s, the official said.
“He didn’t buy them on the street. He didn’t buy them on the Internet,” the official said. “He bought them from a licensed gun dealer — the rifle and the two handguns.”
But despite all that they aren’t sure of at the moment, they are certain that Ciancia acted alone, although he was dropped off at the airport.
Authorities do not believe the friend knew that Paul Ciancia, the man charged in the attack, planned to open fire inside LAX’s Terminal 3 just moments later, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding three other people, including two more TSA workers, said the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and requested anonymity.
Ciancia was dropped off in a black Hyundai and was not a ticketed passenger. He was able to respond to investigators’ questions at the scene Friday, the official told the AP exclusively.
Ciancia, who was charged with murder of a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport, is currently heavily sedated in the hospital after being shot four times, one of which blew a molar out of the suspect’s jaw.
His charges could qualify him for the death penalty. We’ll keep you updated on the latest.
SOURCE: Huffington Post | PHOTO CREDIT: FBI
