Panicked New Jersey family members asked police to check on Paul Ciancia Friday afternoon, after he sent a text message from California that talked about suicide.
Killed Officer, Gerardo Hernandez
But on the other side of the country, authorities say, Ciancia didn’t kill himself. Instead, the 23-year-old former New Jersey man opened fire with an assault rifle in a Los Angeles International Airport terminal teeming with adults and children. Officials said he killed one TSA agent and wounded seven other people.
As pandemonium broke out, the gunman was as calm as his fleeing would-be victims were frantic, witnesses said. He walked into the airport’s Terminal 3, home to JetBlue and Virgin America airlines, around 9:20 a.m. Pacific time, authorities said, pulled out the firearm and became the latest loner to go on a senseless shooting spree.
The madman, an L.A. resident originally from Pennsville, N.J., walked up to terrified travelers in his path, simply asking if they “were TSA,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
People who answered “no” were spared, but Ciancia blew away TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez, 39, with his AR-15-style assault rifle.
Hernandez, the first TSA worker to die in the line of duty, was a behavioral detection officer who was trained to look out for suspicious activity, The New York Times reported.
