Gunman in LAX shooting spree identified as '23-year-old Paul Ciancia'

LAX gunman planned to die in shoot-out with ‘pigs and the TSA’ who he ranted about in suicide note he took on deadly rampage

• Shooter identified as U.S. citizen and Los Angeles resident Paul  Ciancia 
• Texted brother Friday morning saying he was thinking of taking his own life
• His mother, Susan, died in 2009 after long battle with MS
• Father, also called Paul, runs an autoshop in Pennsville, New Jersey
• Witnesses said the gunman was asking people if they worked for TSA before shooting
• Officials say Ciancia is in critical condition after being shot in the face

• Was carrying anti-government literature with him during rampage, including a note that said he wanted to ‘kill TSA and pigs’

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Published: 16:47 EST, 1 November 2013 | Updated: 08:39 EST, 2 November 2013

The man accused of going on a deadly rampage apparently targeting TSA agents inside Los Angeles International Airport has been named as Paul Anthony Ciancia.

A motive for the fatal shooting wasn’t clear but Ciancia was wearing fatigues and carrying a bag containing a handwritten note that said he ‘wanted to kill TSA and pigs’ and that may have made a reference to a conspiracy theory about a totalitarian force trying to take over the world, according to a federal official who wished to remain anonymous.

Friends and former classmates are now trying to connect the quiet young man who was sometimes the target of bullies, with the apparent anti-government attacker who opened fire and killed a TSA agent. 

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‘He kept to himself and ate lunch alone a lot,’ said former classmate David Hamilton, who attended Salesianum School with Ciancia.

‘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,’ Hamilton told .

‘He was quiet and people would take advantage of that.’

Another former classmate; Jeff Skidmore, said that Ciancia may have had a speech impediment and did not like speaking in front of the class. Skidmore told the paper that he did not remember Ciancia ever being bullied, saying instead that he was just left alone by his peers.

A different federal official said that it was clear from the note that he expected to die in the standoff.

‘This was clearly a suicide mission… he did not expect to walk away from this,’ the official told .

The 23-year-old gunman is said to have has strong anti-government views and sent a text to his brother this morning saying he was thinking about taking his own life.

reports that his text to his brother was not the first one that he had sent in recent days that scared family members. In others, which were sent to his brother and father, Ciancia was said to have rambled about his negative outlook on life, his disgust with the government and his disappointment with his life in Los Angeles.

Relatives were concerned about the latest suicidal text, so they contacted the local New Jersey police station, who called their Los Angeles counterparts and ordered a ‘welfare check’ for Ciancia. Police went to his apartment and spoke to his two roommates before signing off and telling the New Jersey police that everything was fine.

Little did they know that as they were making that phone call, Ciancia had started shooting at LAX.

Ciancia, an American citizen with a minor criminal record, was arrested after an armed confrontation with police and taken to a hospital, where he is listed in critical condition after reportedly being shot in the face.

The gunman, who was raised in Pennsville, New Jersey, is accused of shooting dead a safety screener with a high-powered assault rifle and wounding several others before being apprehended by police, according to officials.

He was pictured handcuffed to a gurney as he was escorted out of the airport after being shot multiple times by responding officers. 

According to ABC, Ciancia’s brother received a ‘worrying’ text from him before the shooting, which prompted their father to call the police station to warn them of the possible threat to his own life.

Los Angeles police went to Ciancia’s apartment for a welfare check, and spoke to the 23-year-old’s roommates, who said when they last saw him on Thursday he had been fine.

The officers reported back to headquarters that there was nothing to be worried about but, unbeknown to them, as they made that call Ciancia had already opened fire in LAX.

There was one fatality in the shooting: Gerardo I. Hernandez, a 39-year-old father-of-two who had been working at Los Angeles International Airport for three years.

Friends and family have begun paying their respects to the slain public servant, saying that he was a loving husband and caring father who enjoyed spending his free time with his children.

The shooting makes Hernandez the first TSA agent shot and killed in the line of duty. One of his colleagues was also shot in the Friday rampage but that individual is expected to make a full recovery.

NBC’s Pete Williams reported that the 23-year-old suspect may have anti-government views based on the literature he was carrying.

A neighbor of Ciancia’s, Whitney Hankins, 18, who went to Pennsville Memorial High School with him, said the family were very quiet and kept to themselves, especially after the 2009 death of the mother Susan, who suffered from MS for years.

‘I didn’t know him personally as he was a few years older than me,’ she said. ‘But I would see him around school and the neighborhood.

Warning signs: Ciancia sent a text message to his brother on Friday morning saying he wanted to kill himself

‘He was kinda strange, very quiet and shy. Wouldn’t really make eye contact or talk much. Though I would never have expected him to do anything like this. Some of the girls on the street called him “the creepy guy”.’

Whitney said in the tight-knit middle-class neighborhood, the Ciancia’s house was set back into the woods and was ‘humungous’ compared to others on the street.

‘We just assumed they were really wealthy because they have a really big house compared to the others and his dad owns an auto shop up the street.

‘It’s a really small town and everyone knows everyone else’s business. But everyone just kind of left them alone after the mom died.’

The Pennsville Police Department has had no dealings with the younger Ciancia, Cummings said.

He and neighbors described the Ciancias as a good, nice family.

Ciancia graduated in 2008 from Salesianum School, an all-boys Roman Catholic school in Wilmington, Delaware, across the Delaware River from Pennsville, the school said.

The suspect’s father has been involved with Pennsville’s Fraternal Order of Police, said neighbor Orlando Pagan, a lieutenant in nearby Penns Grove. He didn’t provide details on his involvement.

Outside the father’s home Friday in Pennsville, a police cruiser blocked the long driveway.

Phone calls weren’t answered, and efforts to reach siblings were also unsuccessful.

Orlando Pagan’s 17-year-old son Josh said that he would sometimes encounter Ciancia at orthodontist appointments, but that it had been at least two years since the last one.

‘He was never weird toward me. He never gave me any weird vibes,’ he said, adding that in the 10 years he has lived across the street from the Ciancia family, ‘they’ve been nothing but nice to us.’

Witness Leon Saryan told ABC News Radio that a ‘fairly young’ man armed with a rifle fired about 20 rounds as he made his way down a hallway before confronting a TSA agent.

The screener, who was holding Saryan’s shoes, was shot and wounded, he told ABC.

The witness recalled that the suspect faced him and asked, ‘Are you TSA?’

‘He saw me. He looked at me with a quizzical look and said, “TSA?” And I just shook my head. So he moved on,’ Saryan said. 

FBI agents and LAPD anti-terrorism officials were on the scene at Terminal 3, but sources said they do not believe the suspect was connected to any known terrorist groups, calling him a lone shooter.

LAX Police Chief Patrick Gannon told reporters that the gunman entered Terminal 3 at 9.20am local time, pulled an assault rifle out of his bag and opened fire.

He shot his way through the safety screening area and moved deeper into the terminal. Officers who responded to reports of shots fired tracked the man to a Burger King and shot him.