here from above outside the terminal as an oeg of travelers fleeing the gunman. you can imagine being there a. number of people got hurt in the rush but sticking around was not an option. you ll hear stories tonight. a lot of eyewitnesss on the program with everything else we re learning about today s murder at lax. reporter: los angeles international airport, 9:28 a.m. local time. the fbi says paul anthony ciancia a white male 23 pull as rifle and opens fire. at the security check point tsa officers not armed or shot, one is killed. he preceded to the screening area and continued shooting and went past the screeners back into the airport itself. reporter: authorities say after shooting his way through the security check point the gunman makes it all the way down this hallway and stopped by
the corridor towards the gate. meanwhile, more shots rang out. and this agent got hit. i think it was a grazing wound. because he seemed to be okay. he had my shoes. i went and kind of cowered in a corner. and the shooter was just calmly walking down the corridor. he saw me cowering there. he had his gun and he looked at me and he said, tsa? and i just shook my head. he kept going. how did he seem to you? what did he look like? what was his expression? he didn t act like you know it was kind of hard to seat expression. i was more focused on his weapon. it was a rifle, looked like an assault rifle. not sure what kind it would have been. but he was dressed normally. he had short hair, a light
bussed everybody to another terminal. there was about a three-hour wait before police came and said hey did anybody see anything. i raised my hand. there were about 50 of us. we just got done with interviews right now. i think they re just about to let us go. well, i know it s been an incredibly long, difficult day for you, vernon and tom, thanks for take the time to talk. thanks. absolutely. up next tonight why today s killing marks a sad milestone for the tsa. also investigating any political and global connections. we ll check in with our national securi security correspondent. [ male announcer ] at humana, understanding what makes you different is what makes us different. we take the time to get to know you and your unique health needs. then we help create a personalized healthcare experience that works for you. and you. and you. with 50 years of know-how,
this is a circumstance the fbi is doing a great job and back here at pennsville, we ll do the best to help them out. you never had a problem with this family before? no. the chief did not say about reports the family got suicidal text messages from the killer prior to the shooting. tsa officers are not armed. the lax shooting points how vulnerable they are. airports are long to be known soft targets. joining me tom blank and mike brooks. tom, this is obviously a terrible tragedy. you say it actually could have been much worse and in many ways the security system worked. explain that. one of the key reforms after 9/11 was to create airport security programs under federal law and put in place a federal security director employed by tsa, often someone with a strong
he had on him. here is what we know. first of all, the first indication the way this happened he walked up to a tsa security check point where screeners were located and opened fire killing one of the officers. he injured a second officer at the same time. he made his way down that terminal to the gate area where he was shot and killed. he was killed by officers from lax police and lapd. the second thing that we believe suggests he was targeting tsa agents, law enforcement officials saying as he was running down the terminal, he essentially was asking people hey, are you with tsa and when they said no he continued running, making his way down. third thing, also, information, there were texts that apparently he was sending in the days leading up to the attack we were just learning in which he was sending them to his father and brother and there was some concern about his situation