barrykind
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LAX Shooter Identified as Egyptian National
Friday, July 05, 2002
LOS ANGELES — Authorities have identified the gunman who opened fire and killed two at the ticket counter of Israeli airline El Al at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday.
Egyptian Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, listed July 4 as his birthday on one of two driver's licenses. He was shot dead by an El Al guard after spraying gunfire.
The Fourth of July shooting came on a day when the possibility of terror attacks had put security on high alert around the country. The FBI, however, had not yet determined whether it was an act of terrorism.
"We can't rule that out, but there's nothing to indicate terrorism at this point," FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin said, suggesting it might instead be a hate crime.
"We'd have to find some connections to a terrorist group," he said.
Israel's foreign ministry blamed terrorism, but didn't offer any evidence.
Travelers dove to the ground or scattered for cover when gunfire erupted at the El Al counter. Ticket agent Victoria Chen, 25, and Yaakov Aminov, 46, a jeweler and father of eight who was dropping off a friend, were fatally shot before two El Al guards overwhelmed Hadayet.
The guards and a woman were wounded; another woman suffered heart problems.
The FBI released the gunman's name late Thursday as police in suburban Irvine, 35 miles southeast of the airport, searched his apartment. Police Lt. Sam Allevato said they were looking for his wife and two sons. Neighbors said they went to Egypt for the summer.
Federal agents later arrived with a search warrant to examine the apartment, from which Hadayet ran his livery service, Five Star Limo.
Neighbors said he was quiet but became incensed when an upstairs neighbor hung large American and Marine Corps flags from a balcony above his front door after Sept. 11. The flags remained there Thursday night.
"He complained about it to the apartment manager. He thought it was being thrown in his face," said Steve Thompson, 39.
Hadayet, who also went by the last name Ali, had California driver's licenses listing two different birth dates — April 7, 1961, and July 4, 1961 — according to the FBI.
The FBI also released a photograph of Hadayet that was taken for gun registrations.
McLaughlin characterized the Hadayet as heavily armed during the attack.
"He had extra ammunition and magazines ready to go," McLaughlin said.
Dr. David Parkus heard five or six shots and turned from the Singapore Airlines counter to see the gunman wrestling with a guard. A second guard charged and shot the gunman, Parkus said. As the gunman collapsed, Parkus said he saw a hunting knife fall to the floor.
One guard was hit on the forehead with the **** of the gun and cut on the right arm, and the second guard was cut on the lower back, stabbed on the left thigh, and had a superficial gunshot wound to his right thigh, said Parkus, a trauma surgeon from Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, Texas.
Parkus said he helped hold the gunman as he died, then performed CPR on two victims.
Thousands of people evacuated the international terminal and waited for hours to resume their travels. Thirty-five flights were delayed, affecting 10,500 passengers, during one of the airport's busiest travel periods, officials said.
Hadayet's car was found during the evening in a nearby parking structure, triggering an evacuation there until a bomb squad found nothing unusual in the black Mercedes.
Hakin Hasidh, 43, of Dusseldorf, Germany, said he was standing in the line next to the El Al counter. He heard two shots, turned and saw the gunman fire at passengers in line.
"The first couple of shots, everybody just stood there, frozen like I was," Hasidh said. "It's really hard to tell whether he was aiming at the counter, at people behind the counter or at people in line."
The attack came just days after announcement of a $9.6 billion airport redesign proposal that would require everyone coming to the airport to park outside the airport and go through screening at a remote site before boarding trains to the terminals.
Last year, an Algerian trained in terrorist camps financed by Usama bin Laden was convicted of plotting to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the height of the millennium holiday travel period. Ahmed Ressam was arrested in Washington state on Dec. 14, 1999, while entering the country from Canada in a car with a trunk full of explosives.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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