LA airport shooting suspect charged with murder

Ana Hernandez, wife of Gerardo, victim at LAX shooting, during a press conference in Porter Ranch, Calif. on Saturday Nov. 2, 2013. A gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, killing a Transportation Security Administration employee and wounding two other people in an attack that frightened passengers and disrupted flights nationwide. AP

LOS ANGELES — U.S. prosecutors filed a murder charge Saturday against the suspected gunman in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, and he could face the death penalty.

Authorities arrested 23-year-old Paul Ciancia in Friday’s attack, which also wounded five others, including two other federal security officers. Security officer Gerardo Hernandez was killed.

Ciancia was also charged with commission of violence at an international airport.

Ciancia was determined to lash out at the Transportation Security Administration, saying in a note that he wanted to kill at least one TSA officer and didn’t care which one, authorities said.

It’s not clear why Ciancia targeted the agency, but the note found in his bag suggested the unemployed motorcycle mechanic was willing to kill almost any airport security officer he could confront with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

“Black, white, yellow, brown, I don’t discriminate,” the note read, according to a paraphrase by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The suspect’s screed also mentioned “fiat currency” and “NWO,” possible references to the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that foresees a totalitarian one-world government.

Terminal 3, the area where the shooting happened, reopened Saturday.

The TSA planned to review its security policies in the wake of the shooting. Administrator John Pistole did not say if that meant arming officers.

A few more details emerged about Ciancia, who was described as reserved and solitary.

Former classmates barely remember him, and even a recent roommate could say little about the young man who moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles less than two years ago.

“He kept to himself and ate lunch alone a lot,” a former classmate, David Hamilton, told the Los Angeles Times. “I really don’t remember any one person who was close to him …. In four years, I never heard a word out of his mouth.”

Ciancia, who was shot four times by airport police, remained hospitalized Saturday, but there was no word on his condition. He was wounded in the mouth and the leg, authorities said.

On Friday, Ciancia’s father called police in New Jersey, worried about his son after the young man sent texts to his family that suggested he might be in trouble.

The call came too late. Ten minutes earlier, police said, Ciancia had walked into the airport, pulled the rifle from his bag and began firing.

When searched by police, Ciancia had five 30-round magazines, and the bag contained “hundreds of rounds in 20-round boxes,” the law-enforcement official said.

Hernandez, 39, was the first TSA official in the agency’s 12-year history to be killed in the line of duty.

Allen Cummings, police chief in the small town where Ciancia grew up, said the texts the suspect’s family had received did not mention suicide or hurting others.

The attack at the nation’s third-busiest airport halted caused hundreds of flight delays and cancellations nationwide.

Leon Saryan had just passed through security when he gunfire. He fled and as he was cowering in a 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.

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