23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia opened fire with a rifle, killing a Transportation Security Administration officer and injuring several other people.
[4] He was carrying a bag filled with a semiautomatic,[5] .223-caliber Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifle, five 30-round magazines, and hundreds of additional rounds of ammunition contained in boxes.
[2][6] One witness, interviewed on CNN, said the gunman was walking, not running, down the terminal's concourse,[7] and actor Tim Daly reported hearing shooting while in the Virgin America's "The Loft" lounge.
Police were unsure whether the terminal was safe for paramedics to enter, and as a result TSA officer Hernandez did not receive medical care for 33 minutes after being shot, despite him bleeding out about 20 feet from an exit.
[4][6][16] Six victims were transported to area hospitals, including three men, two of whom had suffered gunshot wounds, who were treated at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
[17] Ciancia was shot four times, including wounds in the head and leg,[18] by law enforcement in the food court area of Terminal 3 and was in critical condition.
Video from KCAL-TV shows Ciancia brought into the hospital from an ambulance, surrounded by multiple police officers, while handcuffed to a gurney.
[6] On the day of the shooting and before Ciancia was identified as the suspect, the LAPD went to his residence when concerned family members wanted to file a missing persons report after not having heard from him after repeated attempts to make contact.
They searched in cars with armed officers and a bomb-sniffing dog at the nearby parking garages that are connected to airport terminals by pedestrian bridges.
[4] In the wake of the shooting, ongoing debates over the effectiveness of airport security were reignited, with several suggestions being made about arming TSA officers with guns.
"[31] On January 22, 2014, it was revealed that the two unarmed officers assigned to the area had gone on a break at the time of the shooting, without carrying out the requirement of informing a dispatcher, with one being at the bathroom of an adjacent terminal.
In response to the new details, airport police union chief Marshall McClain stated that the two officers were still capable of quickly responding to the shooting, adding, "I want to make sure that in any terminal, there's always somebody there, that a bathroom break doesn't result in somebody, even for a few minutes, being out of the action.
"[32] On March 18, 2014, a released 83-page report highlighted flaws in various divisions and current systems of the airport, adding that emergency response had been hindered by "communication problems and poor coordination".
Jeffrey David Cox Sr., the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the lack of coordination "absolutely unacceptable" and criticized the report as being incomplete and failing to note the two airport officers who were not on their shifts at the time of the shooting.
Ciancia also faced additional federal and/or state charges, including attempted murder in relation to the two men who were wounded by gunfire.
[37] On November 19, 2013, Ciancia was released from hospital after recovering from his gunshot wounds; he was taken into custody by agents from the United States Marshals Service (U.S.
[40] The indictment described how the offence involved substantial planning and premeditation to cause the death of a person and to commit an act of terrorism.
[49] On November 7, 2016, Ciancia was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 60 years and is currently incarcerated in the United States Penitentiary, Victorville.