Paul Anthony Ciancia – the man suspected of carrying out Friday’s gun attack at LA Airport – has been charged with murder.
Prosecutors say the death penalty could be sought if 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia is convicted. He is in hospital after being shot by police.
A federal US security agent was killed and others wounded in the attack. Police are attempting to establish a motive for the assault.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has now reopened fully.
About 1,550 flights with 167,000 passengers were affected, airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said.
US Attorney Andre Birotte said Paul Anthony Ciancia was also charged with commission of violence at an international airport.
Andre Birotte said the gunman had pulled a “.223-calibre M&P-15 assault rifle out of his bag and fired multiple rounds at point-blank range” at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39.
Paul Anthony Ciancia has been charged with murder after carrying out Friday’s gun attack at LA Airport
The attorney said the shots did not kill the officer, but the gunman returned to “shoot the wounded officer again”.
Gerardo Hernandez’s widow, Ana, said he was “a joyful person, always smiling and took pride in his duty to the American public”.
The FBI has also given more details of a note found on the suspect.
David Bowdich, the head of the FBI’s LA office, said: “In the note that was handwritten by the defendant, that was signed by the defendant, we found a statement where he made a conscious decision to kill multiple TSA employees.
“He addressed them at one point in the letter, and stated that he wanted to <<instill fear into their traitorous minds>>.”
David Bowdich said investigators had not yet been able to interview Paul Anthony Ciancia.
The gunman appeared to target agents of the TSA, which manages security at US airports.
He pushed through screening gates and walked more than 100 yards into the secure area of the terminal before law enforcement officers caught up with him in a food court.
A law enforcement official told the Associated Press news agency that Paul Anthony Ciancia was shot in the mouth and leg by two airport police officers.
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Paul Anthony Ciancia, the man who allegedly killed a TSA worker and wounded three others at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday had anti-government literature in his possession outlining an alleged conspiracy to create a single global government.
Law enforcement sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told NBC News the material recovered from Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, after the shootout at LAX appeared to have been prepared by a group called “New World Order”.
One source said it also expressed animus toward racial minorities.
There is no record of a radical group by that name and the term “New World Order” is often used by conspiracy-minded groups and individuals to describe an alleged secret plot to establish an autonomous world government that would replace sovereign nations and put an end to international power struggles.
According to ConspiracyWiki, a website devoted to conspiracy theories, the doctrine was primarily limited to militant anti–government and radical fundamentalist Christian groups until the early 1990s, but has since been embraced by some left-wing groups.
Very little was known about Paul Anthony Cianci, who had lived in the Philadelphia area before moving to California.
LAX suspect Paul Anthony Ciancia had anti-government literature in his possession outlining an alleged conspiracy to create a single global government
His brother told police in New Jersey he had received a text message from the suspect Friday morning saying he was thinking about taking his life.
Pennsville, New Jersey, Police Chief Allen J. Cummings then contacted the Los Angeles Police Department to do a well-being check on Paul Anthony Ciancia at his apartment in California. He wasn’t there when LAPD officers contacted his roommates about 10 a.m. local time, but they said everything was fine.
Paul Anthony Ciancia’s father, also named Paul, told NBC station KNBC that he last spoke to his son a week ago, when the son said the economy was depressed. The senior Ciancia said he didn’t know if his son had a job or if he owned any weapons, but confirmed that he was in California.
Paul Anthony Ciancia was shot by law enforcement and taken into custody after he allegedly began shooting at Transportation Security Administration workers with an assault rifle at about 9:20 a.m. local time.
Federal officials said it was unclear whether the gunman was targeting TSA workers or was trying to shoot his way through to gain greater access to the airport. But one witness said the shooter, while walking through the terminal with his weapon, approached him with a one-word question.
“All he said was, <<TSA?>> Just like that,” Leon Saryan told MSNBC.
The shooting started in Terminal 3, which serves Virgin America and other airlines. Paul Anthony Ciancia allegedly took a 223-caliber AR-15 style, semiautomatic rifle out of a duffle bag and fired on TSA officers at a screening checkpoint, authorities said. He then went farther into the terminal, where he exchanged fire with law enforcement and was shot multiple times in the chest, they said.
He was hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.
Police said quick action by airport officers averted a worse tragedy.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference later Friday that Paul Anthony Ciancia had with him at least 100 more rounds of ammunition that “literally would have killed everyone in that terminal.”
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