there's no indication at this point that he is a current or former tsa or tsa contractor. but, precisely who he is and what he was doing, we don't know. and you've probably seen this, tamron, the reports from -- the statement from the hospital, we believe the three tsa employees who were wound were taken to the ucla medical center, two in fair condition, one in critical condition. >> i'm so happy you adreszed this. there are a number of reports that this was a tsa employee or former employee. and people have been with the social media engagement asking if that is the case. the information that you've been able to get is that it is not. we're watching as the los angeles mayor eric garcetti and l.a. police chief charlie beck now preparing to start the news conference. leon, can you tell me what you saw? >> you ready? >> yes. >> are you there? >> yes, i am. >> can you tell me what you saw in the airport? >> well, basically i was at the security checkpoint and just gotten through the security checkpoint and i got my belt and shoes were off -- >> leon, let me interrupt you real

what had his relationship with tsa? if it is home grown, there's so many other ways to resolve conflict but unfortunately violence is a means of conflict resolution in this country. >> tell us more about tsa officers in general. they are not really police but do have that sort of responsibility within one area of the airport. but there are also actual officers and military personnel at airports. they don't have guns but they are sort of first level of response. tell us about tsa and what we need and expect from them? >> of course, tsa came about after 9/11 when we had planes hijacked and other individuals running metal detectors. tsa is well trained as they are, these are security officers, not law enforcement officers, don't carry guns or have the power of arrest. they rely on local police, sheriff's deputies, whatever sworn law enforcement officer at that airport to handle that responsibility. by and large they interact with the public and screen our baggage. they are first line of defense for you and me when we trave

do you believe this one incident, tom, will result in further pushes by the tsa to even perhaps arm tsa officers or change the prescreening security procedures. right now anybody can walk up to the checkpoint. >> well, i don't think that you'll see a move toward arming the tsa officers. in order to do that they would have to become fully fledged law enforcement officers. they are security officers and well trained but they are not trained to the level of a law enforcement officer so i don't think that they would wind you have being armed. you may see some tighter coordination with law enforcement agencies at the at lax, you may see additional patrols, some of the federal air marshals expanding their presence for the time being. i wouldn't immediately think that any permanent high level of security will be implemented. >> we would like to bring in phil lebeau. lax is the sixth largest airport in the world and t3 where the shooting took place this morning houses lots of airlines, virgin america, virin australia, jetblue and others. have very heard any reaction from the airlines themselves

tsa. >> do you think this response time is sufficient? >> again, that was designed, it would be the idea that you may find somebody would not causing intent to harm innocent of somebody has a gun or something else, prohibited item. so given the shooting we are evaluating that, and clearly, even though los angeles airport police responded and neutralized the target within four minutes from the first call, that obviously, if they should have intent to cause much greater harm, there are dozens of passengers that he could have shot that he just walked right past her to watch videotape of all this taking place in literally people right at his feet and he goes back to shoot officer hernandez the second time. there are literally passengers laying on the floor right by him. so clearly five minutes was too long in this case and that's something we're looking at as part of our review. >> i appreciate that. my time has expired. but you're not recognize the ranking minority members, the gentlemen from

so the tsa is far better, but they are sitting ducks. >> the first line of security is that tsa checkpointound the world as you have, there are always checkpoints as you drive into the airport. they stop your vehicle. is that something we should be considering here? >> well, folks, at least as old as me will remember that we did that in the wake of september 11th, 2001. we did have those kinds of checkpoints. l.a.x. is particularly difficult, because we have so many different terminals. a lot of airports you have one main entranceway, like atlanta, that gets you into all the areas of the airport, but it's much easier to secure it. airports like l.a.x., dallas/ft. worth, kansas city, there are so many portals, areas to secure that they're tough. l.a.x. is one of those tough airports. they have decisional issues that maybe some other airports like heartsfield don't have. >> mary coffee, thanks for coming in. >> thank yskaufo, just as it wa happening, we are our correspondents and analysts standing by. much more as our special coverage continues. she loves a lot of the same things you do. it'

and privatizing the tsa. i think we need take a step back in our comments about the tsa and just a tax in general on the federal work force. these folks are doing a public service. they're doing oftentimes at much less money than they received in the private sector. again, they are the last line of defense. and i don't think our comments are well served. ic they can create a culture of hate toward people working in a stressful environment dealing with passengers. myself included not always on our best behavior as we are rushed trying to make our plane. it's a difficult job. and i hope we can be mindful of the job. and in light of that, the administrator, i want to talk about ranking member thompson have some concerns with his questioning about radio communication capability between tso and law enforcement personnel particularly armed law enforcement. my question to clarify at la x and most of the airports across the country, is there radio communication can that can take place between tso and law enforcement

we know tsa agents themselves are not armed. not the people who check your boarding pass, documentation, not the people who run conveyor belts or scanners, who was it? if there was an exchange of gunfire and alleged suspect was one of the people firing, who was firing on the other side of it. if tsa agents are not armed, and they are not, we've just confirmed that, lapd and perhaps a federal marshall, u.s. marshall could be at that area at each checkpoint. the notion somebody prevented what could have been a much wider incident or tragedy today, it might not have been a tsa person. whoever fired the shot has not yet been identified. that's one of the things we'll confirm as the afternoon goes on. >> jim cavanaugh, there are conflicting reports. i interviewed an eyewitness earlier, a passenger who described seeing a man with a long gun walking around inside the checkpoint. if all the other reports are accurate, this shooter will stop at the checkpoint. the man he claims to have seen will not be the same as the shooter. maybe ther

but we have heard nothing from tsa. there were report of a man opening fire inside of terminal three, which was evacuated. are also reports that a tsa agent ran through terminal three and said everybody get down. we want to go now live to a correspondent who has been monitoring the twitter accounts, and social media playing once again a role in another story. >> dell, we have two people that are there that have been tweeting this

but you cannot arm all the tsa. because when you arm a federal officer, it puts them in a different rank. you have to requalify on the firearms. a lot of my employees were armed. you have to requalify every 30 days. it's very expensive. it's very difficult, but the tsa needs to be protected with armed personnel and i think it has to be officers. i think it has to be police. >> can i ask you something real quickly. because what about the actual physicality of the airports? i notice los angeles, it's not a long distance between the curb and when you get to security. same thing at laguardia, it's, like, security is right there. but there are other bigger airports where you have to go a longer way, there are more steps, more layers. is that something that may possibly we should be looking in to? >> yes. but it's very difficult, because the airports that are newer like hartsfield, like denver, they're set up with many barriers to entry and you have a few main portals and they're easier to secure and less expensive to sec

was the tsa prepared to handle this?o we know much about that specific check point and how he was able to get through? >> speaking to folks at the tsa, they focus on keeping weapons and other dangerous things off the airplane. they tend to leave the shooting to trained shooters and in fact, i spoke to the head of the tsa union today and he said that's one thing they haven't asked for. they haven't asked for their agents, officer, rather to be armed. that said, after i reported that i got tweets back from some tsa agents out there who disagree with that position and feel like one of them wrote to me unarmed sitting ducks but that's at least the union position, and to be clear, it's not like there aren't loads of armed agents running around an airport like that. there are 2100 tsa officers in lax and more than a thousand l.a. airport police armed and the dha with air marijuanas on board planes and also on the airport. so a lot of armed agents around. it the tsa agent's position to leave the shooting to them and they will d

tsa was running with us. as we were running, there were probably 15 to 20 shots that we heard shined behind us. we ran over towards terminal two under planes and so all of the people that were in line to be screened, we stormed through the security gates. that is breaching security too. we kept running away from the shots and we ducked into terminal two. scary moments here for sure at lax. >> i have been talking to mark and audrey while you have been on the air. you don't have your shoe. you are wearing only one shoe. >> i was at the screening area. i was putting my belongings in the tray i had one boot off and i put my boot in the tray and we fell to the floor and on top of each other. it was like a dream it wasn't real it was like a movie. it was so intense. and we panicked. and just started flooding through the screening xray machines and tsa was right there with us. i'm shaking i'm scared. they say there could be a gunman on the roof. i just want to get out of here. >> i talkeded to law enforcement moment

tsa agents are not armed.prefer to leave the shooting they say the head of their union says to the many armed guards that are in that airport. there are more than 2,000 tsa officers, more than 1,000 l.a. airport police many armed. air marshalls. a lot of and officers in l.a.x. the tsa officers have not asked to be armed but they are the frontline of defense. we saw that today. they were the first ones to face this threat. one of them lost his life for it. >> jim, appreciate the update. thanks. for more on the bigger picture i spoke earlier with tom ridge. during the bush administration he was the nation's first secretary of homeland security. >> mr. secretary, appreciate you joining us. as we said this was the first time a tsa employee has been killed in the line of duty since the organization was established during a time in the bush administration. what do you make of what happened today at l.a.x.? what are the main sort of points you're looking at or interested in finding out more details on? >> well first

tsa agents don't have guns.o where is the first round of, i guess, resistance in the airport. >> well, there is an officer right behind them. each check point has an officer, and sometimes two. the tsa is not the kind of training that the officer with an armed weapon has. he is a sworn officer. extensive weapons training, and hours and hours of legal training, and that's why there is a difference of armed versus not armed. but i do remind you that the tsa is a federal employee. they are considered officers, and if one has been shot or wounded, that is a federal regulation. and i don't doubt that federal authorities will be interested in prosecuting the individual. >> jennifer london you are still with us in los angeles? >> yes, i am, del. are you hearing anything new. can you bring us up to date on any new reports that have come out? >> we certainly hope to learn more at the press briefing, which is supposed to happen at any moment now. and we want to be so careful with the reporting because information from the

agent himself and that a tsa agent pulled this weapon out of a bag and shot another tsa agent, according to the "los angeles times." they're quoting sources and we should find out within a matter of minutes. our coverage continues right after this. (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. with scottrade's online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login... to easily move my money when i need to. plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. i'm with scottrade. (announcer) scottrade-proud to be ranked "best overall client experience." >>> past noon in los angeles, this is fox news continues coverage of the shooting that happened this morning at lax. i was telling you about the reporting of the "l.a. times." they reported at 11:36 los angeles time on their website that law enforcement sources told the "l.a. times" that the gunman was a transportation security administration employee at lax. fast forward now. to current time,

the gunman began firing, killing a tsa officer, the first tsa officer ever killed in the line of duty. a second tsa officer was shot and five others wound and taken to the hospital. police say he was carrying a note saying he wanted to kill tsa employees, and quote, pigs referring to police. passengers say it was a chaotic scene, people ran through metal detectors and into terminals others running on to tarmac. thousands of flights across the country have been cancelled or delay delayed. no planes heading to lax were allowed to take off. flights already in the air were diverted to other airports. now, this news the faa ban on flights to lax just listed minutes ago. terminal three remains closed for the investigation. in the newsroom, abc7 news. >> take a look at this google earth map of southern california. and the los angeles area. and los angeles international airport. all trouble happened her in terminal three. this is the northwest portion of the airport. six carriers fly in and out. >> we reported the shooting at lax on our abc7 news smart known app. you can down load the app for

some kind of rant against the tsa. it indicated hatred for the tsa.re that comes from. what kind of grooms he might be associated with. these are something the authorities are trying to check out at this hour. he is still very much a mystery to authorities. especially as far as what his motivation is and what was the, what was his association with tsa. what really motivated, his dislike for the tsa. >> 23 years old and look at the damage this individual allegedly has done. this is the first tsa officer killed in the line of duty. >> that's right. when you look at this, this is one of the best protected airports in the world. it has 2,100 tsa officers. more than 1100 los angeles airport police. many of them armed. and one man with one gun, it looks like an assault rifle, shut it down and killed one of those officers and was able to break through that phalanx of security guards. even when you set these very high security standards in a place that has been attacked before, it is hard to protect against every event you'llality. >> they're lerns more every

here on the east coast, a shooter shot a tsa guard, tsa agent, then went through the terminal.as well. police say that he is in custody. we're not sure about how he is doing. seven other individuals were wounded at least, according to law enforcement officials. i want to now go to senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen for the latest on the condition of individuals. elizabeth, we know from ronald reagan ucla medical center that three individuals were admitted there. what do we know about them and what do we know about the other wounded? >> right. those three who are at ucla ronald reagan, there are two in fair condition and one in critical condition. all we know about these patients is that they're adult males. that's all we know. one in critical, two in fair. they did note the patients in fair condition usually go home within a day or two so it seems like those injuries really aren't terribly severe. as you noted, three were sent -- three patients were sent to other area hospitals. we don't know anything about those patients right now. >> and we were told from law enforc

we know tsa agents aren't allowed to carry guns. but the shooter obviously had an assault weapon and there were law enforcement who came in and shot him. do you have any recollection of how many shots you heard? >> i would say between 10 and 15, although i didn't keep count. though there were quite a few shots. >> that sounds like what other people are saying, too. >> they moved. because the lounge is as i said on the second floor. and the first two or three shots were sounded like they were coming down the hallway into the wide open round place where the waiting area is for the boarding gates. and then there was a flurry of shots that took place right where the boarding area is. that's where the majority of the shots they heard were fired. >> all right. well, tim, thank you very much. we appreciate your taking the time. i know it's been an incredibly long and stressful day. so thank you for talking to us. i want to bring jeff beede in now, former counterterrorism officer. he helped design the security we use at airports. jeff i bel

honoring this fallen tsa officer?you'll notice especially if you come at night because it will be more visible at night but when you enter the gates of los angeles, of leak.a.x., ther are 100-foot pylons and those until thursday will be fighting up the light sky blue for the tsa colors. that's the first way. when you go in to check in, what you'll see is that the tsa officers if you look at their badges, almost every single one of them has a black band over it. the reason why this is so significant is these are semi, quasi-law enforcement jobs. many of these folks are former military, but also there are civilians in the mix here. this is shaking them to the core, don, so this for them is certainly reminding them what they put at stake here every day, don. >> i need to get to the press conference. we'll get back to you in just moments. stand by. let's listen in. >> -- found impacting approximately 3,400 passengers. now, passengers are checking in at t-3 now. the jetblue and frontier operations are actually operating at

among his victims a tsa officer shot and killed. the first tsa officer ever killed in line of duty. these are aerial pictures from our station in los angeles kabc, and this evening one of the nation's busiest airports with a heavy police presence, we have team coverage here on the fast moving investigation. we lead off with david wright. on the scene. >> reporter: panicked rush hour here at the nation's third busiest airport. and a terrifying announcement. >> we have a shooting in terminal 3. >> reporter: at 9:20 a.m. the suspect marched up to the check point in terminal 3, pulled out a high powered rifle and opened fire. >> first shot went out, and i mean, it was a loud bang. >> reporter: nick pugh had shown his id at the terminal 3 screening area. did people panic? >> everybody panicked, everybody dropped to the ground and crawled across the ground really quickly. >> reporter: eyewitnesses say the gunman appeared to be aiming at tsa officers killing one of them wounding at least three others, for the passengers and workers at l.a.x., pandemonium. those passengers hiding in the bat

one of those questions, should tsa agents be armed? here's jeff pegues. >> reporter: at reagan national airport today passengers were a bit more patient with the long lines. al wooten travels frequently for business. >> i don't mind the line, my thing is just getting there safely. >> reporter: security procedures at u.s. airports are under scrutiny after friday's shooting. tsa says it will work with congress to review procedures and see if anything more could have been done. tsa officers have been posted at transportation check points since november of 2001, a direct response to the failures of a precept 11th system. since the agency's creation. >> dow have anything sharp, dangerous. >> reporter: the 50,000 tsa officers have screened about 4 billion bags but they are unarmed. tsa administrator john pistole says his officers aren't there to make arrest, their job is to search for explosives. >> the police have that primary responsibility. our responsibility is making sure that nobody gets on a plane with something that could be catastro

or tsa? >> well, the fbi will -- as the chief law enforcement agency charged with terrorism -- if they decide it was a terrorism incident they will grab the jurisdiction. if it turns out to be something of a domestic nature, then i'm sure the local authorities will end up with the large part of the investigation, if you will. >> today being november 1st, is there anything about this particular day in history that would cause authorities to be on high alert? and did you as an fbi agent receive any bulletins from officials higher up saying be on the lookout? >> i didn't see anything myself. and -- and so it appears to me that someone woke up today with an agenda, and had a rifle, and -- which he brought to the airport and decided to execute his agenda. >> fbi james wedic stand by, jennifer london what is the latest from the scene. >> we have heard from lax police that the ground stop is only for departing flights. so arriving flights we're told that is happening normally, if you will. so this g

one tsa agent was killed. i can confirm law enforcement says three down not counting the shooter. law-enforcement tells me the shooter they believe is former tsa or current tsa but we are told that he got through security. not sure if that is like everybody else but he opened fire and ran through or if he got through first. that will be determined and we will learn about. we are waiting for the mayor to come down the sidewalk as well as the police chief. lax has their own police force, lapd is involved and heavily involved and so is federal law enforcement and the bomb squad, something to keep in mind. we don't know if this was aimed at one person or multiple people, what happened here. ashley: the suspect apparently was wearing dark baggy clothing carrying a high-powered rifle. i would assume, did someone see him before the gunfire rang out? do you know whether he was walking around holding a gun? or did anyone see him cry for this? adam: we have heard a number of accounts just like we heard from one law-enfo

there is at least one other tsa employee who was wound by gunshot. there are additional injuries, some of which seem to be potential evasion injuries, where they may have injured themselves trying to get away. at this point, we have one terminal shut down and we will have it shut down for a while while we continue the investigation. forensics team are in there from the fbi as well as the lapd. their work is long and methodical and they will take their time on this to be complete in their investigation. we do have a up the line. i would like to pass out. that an fbi tip line. the number is 1-888-226-8443. if you have, i would seek the public's assistance. if they have information which would be beneficial to this investigation and we ask that they please keep it to that. we would like to know about it'll we do have that line staffed right now. it is available and we are ready to run those leads. additional information, i can you want all the facts. we cannot provide those to you at this point. i see some of you smiling. we're not going to give -- >> w

in this case, this individual gets past tsa. armed police officers are in that terminal area. but they certainly were not in close proximity to the tsa location where they were shot and the one officer killed. >> let's talk about this because a law enforcement official tells cnn that armed police were removed from tsa checkpoints at l.a.x. earlier in the year to allow the officers to roam the terminal as long as they were no farther than two minutes away from that point. what's the reason for that why do that? >> well, you don't have to be a world class track star to cover 100 yards in 15 or 20 seconds. so a person with an assault rifle within two minutes can be a long way into that airport and into the departure area. so they have to ask themselves, and i'm sure everybody is going to be asking now, is that adequate? and i think the facts yesterday demonstrate that certainly, from the tsa protection standpoint, not really. the tsa officers have not been armed historically, and the argument is that, well, first of all, there's on

who is this guy and why did he snap targeting the tsa? sergio is looking into his background and is in the newsroom. >> you heard lilian mention the handwritten note. law enforcement says it describes anger at secretary general janet gnaw napolitano. the aim was to kill tsa employees and pigs. there were three letters, nwo. they believe it relates to a conspiracy their wrist group called the new world order and tonight we are learning the shooter's family sensed something was wrong early this morning. just before today's shooting at l.a.x., across the country in the small town of pennsville, new jersey paul anthony's ciancia's family got a disturbing text. it was troubling enough that pennsville police chief and family friend was called to the house. he tells abc news the text they received suggested the 23-year-old might kill himself. >> if somebody is concerned about a family member we call the local police department and we do a well being check and that's basically what we did. it came back he wasn't home. >> lapd officers went to cia

who is this guy and why did he snap targeting the tsa? sergio is looking into his background and is in the newsroom. >> you heard lilian mention the handwritten note. law enforcement says it describes anger at secretary general janet gnaw napolitano. the aim was to kill tsa employees and pigs. there were three letters, nwo. they believe it relates to a conspiracy their wrist group called the new world order and tonight we are learning the shooter's family sensed something was wrong early this morning. just before today's shooting at l.a.x., across the country in the small town of pennsville, new jersey paul anthony's ciancia's family got a disturbing text. it was troubling enough that pennsville police chief and family friend was called to the house. he tells abc news the text they received suggested the 23-year-old might kill himself. >> if somebody is concerned about a family member we call the local police department and we do a well being check and that's basically what we did. it came back he wasn't hom >> lapd officers went to cianc

a tsa agent has been shot and killed. another tsa agent wounded.ccording to fire, seven people hurt, six taken to area hospitals. so as the investigation is now under way, fbi taking the lead with lapd working alongside of them. we are now hearing more and more from what these people, these people who thought they were just waking up to get on a plane, what they saw and heard. take a listen. >> just describe where you were at the time that this incident was taking place. >> we were in line as everything is happening. i think we were probably like -- we were ten men down from the front to get everything on our plane as we heard one shot and we were like all right, cool, we heard the second one and that's when we all ducked. but the first shot, just like caught us off guard. second shots went in and i just started making walls and walls out of luggages. i could see that guy walking towards the escalator just pointing down past us. >> the guy with the gun? >> yeah, the guy with the gun was pointing down the escalator. as i'm looking toward that person

s tsa confirms it. and here is the questions for tsa and folks here on the news desk are attempting to get an answer. was this tsa agent shot while the agent male or female was working to keep the gunman from getting into the terminal or past security or had this manmade it past security or might the tsa agent been in an area prior to a security check? we don't have answers. and you can see a lot of ambulances are lined up. adam mentioned two. a number of people waiting for neme the triage station. and we have just had one person. fox 11 new system the flag ship station in the west coast and they are covering it live. >> all traffic in and out of lax and that surrounding area is a mess. >> speaking of the traffic. tony what are we seeing here? >> i am wondering if we are seeing a lot of you know, that looks like. this is right as you enter into the airport why you have so many people there i don't know. >> tony talking there now. and one of the correspondents are on the ground. >> reporter: at the airpo

who is this guy and why did he snap targeting the tsa? sergio is looking into his background and is in the newsroom. >> you heard lilian mention the handwritten note. law enforcement says it describes anger at secretary general janet gnaw napolitano. the aim was to kill tsa employees and pigs. there were three letters, nwo. they believe it relates to a conspiracy their wrist group called the new world order and tonight we are learning the shooter's family sensed something was wrong early this morn just before today's shooting at l.a.x., across the country in the small town of pennsville, new jersey paul anthony's ciancia's family got a disturbing text. it was troubling enough that pennsville police chief and family friend was called to the house. he tells abc news the text they received suggested the 23-year-old might kill himself. >> if somebody is concerned about a family member we call the local police department and we do a well being check and that's basically what we did. it came back he wasn't home. >> lapd officers went to ciancia

should tsa officers, for example, be armed. and asked people a simple question: how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ ♪ hooking up the country whelping business run ♪ to enjoy all of these years. ♪ trains! they haul everything, safely and on time. ♪ tracks! they connect the factories built along the lines. and that means jobs, lots of people, making lots and lots of things. let's get your business rolling now, everybody sing. ♪ norfolk southern what's your function? ♪ ♪ helping this big country move ahead as one ♪ ♪ norfolk southern how's that function? ♪ . right now the markets are mixed. the dow jones industrials up five points. not much movement. investors are waiting on a maj

did the tsa and airport police have seamless communication? can thinks be shifted to create more robust? i don't expect to get all of the answers, but i do expect the screening program, known as spot, deployed 300 officers in an effort to identify passenger that may pose a risk to aviation security. they are not trained law enforcement officers and rely on state and local law enforcement to handle situations that might arise. the way to determine if someone is acting suspicious isn't based on science. the threats are real and colleagues agree we need layers of security. but they have to make sense and can't be based on hunches. they have to be proven. i want to command pistole for his. his programs are a huge step in the right direction. but spot doesn't address threats from overseas. it may not provide the deterance we are looking for. calling it risk base and proving that is two different things. an officer hasn't informed an officer of someone deemed a terrorist so it is important to measure. human ability to identify deceptive behavior bas

>> tsa was at the bottom of the stairs. so from where the screening station is, it is back a few ways, probably about, i don't know, ten yards or so from the stairs. so if you are at the rear of the screening station, you can't see to the bottom of the stairs. >> okay. cy want to read something from you. this is tsa's response. i want to get your reaction. here is what they say. each airport authority along with its state and local law enforcement partners is responsible for securing airport property. commercial airports in the united states are required to have an approved airport security program asp. these plans are written and drafted by each airport local authority and approved by the tsa. it is up to each airport authority and their state and local law enforcement partners to follow the plan that's been implemented. so that was a response to a reque question that we had. >> first i'm glad to get an actual response from mr. pistol. we met with him a year ago about these concerns and he was pretty dismissive about them.

more on his hatred of the tsa in a moment. how people at the airport literally started running for their lives. >> three loud pops and everybody started andishinging. >> reporter: cameras typically poised to catch celebs with their luggage. instead, a man is shot by the man on this stretcher, paul ciancia. >> i was terrified like everybody else was. we were onto ground. >> reporter: not just on the ground, but a crush of humanity flooding out of terminal 3, a frenzy. storming out of emergency exits and on to the tarmac. ducking under planes. >> there was a guy downstairs started shooting and one guy fell down, panic erupted and he was going up through the security check. >> reporter: passengers with meticulously planned trips fled, . l.a.x. officials say ciancia shot his way through terminal 3 taking aim at tsa employees. >> the officers didn't, i repeat, they didn't hesitate. they went after this individual and they confronted this individual. >> reporter: take a closer look at the officer's feet. that's ciancia's weapon left

and now we have tsa people. think about how we treat and respect our public servants in this country. and how anti-government sentiment is at the top of our political system right now, and it's dangerous. >> hey, james, a recent politico article suggested that the white house may start pushing for gun control, more at the state level. what do you think it takes to win there at the state level? >> well, i think that's where it's trickiest. i honestly believe we need federal legislative leadership in order to apply the pressure that's required at the state level. but i don't think we should scrap going to the state level. so, for example, at the municipal level, city level, we often have fairly robust common sense gun safety in cities like los angeles, cities like new york. but because the suburbs and other areas of those states have more lax gun safety measures and gun control and more lax background check policies in place, people can use straw purchases and other ways to sort of circumnavigate the system. the e

why was he targeting the tsa? we look into the gun man's background. >> reporter: in the small town of pennsville, new jersey, paul anthony ciancia's family got a disturbing text. it was troubling enough that allen cumming was called to the house. he said the text they received suggested the 23-year-old might kill himself. >> our procedure is if someone is concerned about a family member, we call that local police department and do a well-being check and that's basically what we did. it came back he wasn't home. >> l.a.p.d. officers went to his apartment and talked to his roommates. they said the 23-year-old just left, but seemed to be fine. >> he was a nice guy, a little loner, introverted, but nothing that i would ever, ever expect him to do something like this. >> about the same time chaos was erupting at lax. at the had no idea that a gunman, later identified as ciancia, was shooting up terminal 3 at lax. the fbi has since joined pennsville police at the ciancia home in new jersey. >> reporter: chief, you know

i mean, boom. >> reporter: witnesses say he appeared to be aiming at tsa officers killing one tsa officerther. that's the wounded officer running to safety. flanked by airport police. one passenger gave a chilling account of his close call with the gunman. >> he said, tsa, with a question mark, and i just shook my head. he kept on going. i was looking down the barrel of a gun. he was carrying a rifle that was about, 2 1/2 feet long rifle. he didn't seem to have anything in it for me. so -- you know, we didn't have a long conversation. i just, i just shook my head. and cowered in the corner. >> reporter: at least four others were injured in the melee. did people panic? >> everybody panicked. everybody dropped to the ground, started crawling across the ground quickly. >> nick pew there at terminal three checkpoint line. he followed others out the nearest exit and found himself on the tarmac. >> we are going to be loaded on to shuttles soon. where police were searching for a possible second suspect. >> i went out an emergency exit and ran down on to the tarmac, running across tarmac, the cop

sparked new calls to arm tsa officers. tonight derek valcourt has the debate over allowing the agents to carry weapons. >> reporter: in the wake of friday's shooting rampage at l.a.x., authorities are promising a full review at airports around the country. >> it's not a tsa function but something we need to certainly examine given what happened in los angeles. >> our officers and tsa in general are villified constantly. >> reporter: he's with the union that represents 45,000 tsa workers now calling for some of the agents to carry firearms on the job. >> we're not advocating at this time that all 45,000 officers be armed. we believe that creating a layer of security within tsa, where there are law enforcement officers at tsa that would provide like a nationwide law enforcement force to back up our officers and secure those checkpoints is something that needs to be examined. >> reporter: global aviation security expert says arming tsa officers would be a mistake but he agrees an armed police officer should be present at the

why was he targeting the tsa? sergio looks into the gunman's background. >> in the small town of new jersey paul ciancia's family got a troubling text. troubling enough that the police chief and family friend was called to the house. he tills abc news the text they received suggested the 23-year-old might kill himself. >> our procedure is if somebody is concerned about a family member we call the local police department and do a well being check and that's basically what we did. it came back and he wasn't home. >> lapd went to ciancia's apartment and talked to his two roommates. they told officers the 23-year-old just left, but seemed fine. >> he was a really nice guy, a bit loner and introverted, but nothing i would ever, ever expect him to do something like this. >> at about the same time chaos was erupting at l.a.x., the lapd was calling the chief to tell him they completed their check. they had no idea at that moment a gunman later identified as ciancia was shooting up interpret national 3 at -- terminal 3 at

in all of 2012, the tsa found more than 215 guns.that number has more than doubled in the past eight years. >>> the tsa or transportation security association is part of homeland security. it was created to secure transportation systems. there are 3,000 tsa agents working all across the country. we'll get a live update from lax and the data of thousands of passengers still stranded there. and at 10:45 the front lines of airline security in the area. tsa agents without weapons to protect themselves or passengers. >>> new at 10:00, police in oakland arrested a man following a brief break. it happened this morning when officers responded to reports of a man who appeared to have a weapon near second street. police say they chased the man into a field near laney college where they were able to take him into custody without incident. officers say they did recover a weapon but at this hour, investigators still have not confirmed if it's a real gun or a replica. >>> there are new developments tonight in the case of a santa rosa teenager. the

some back, but it's a long process. >> one tsa dead. multiple other tsa people injure. do we have any sense of who is in the hospital for example, what kind of shape they're? how they're classified? >> we don't. we know there was one news conference from ucla medical center where they had three people injured, one of them critically, a couple of them gunshot wounds. but we don't know the specifics yet. a lot of what is going on is privacy concerns as they notify the family and get permission to release some of the information. even the numbers, the airport authority said earlier today seven people injured, six transported to the hospitals. we'll see if we get an update on that in the news conference later this hour. >> many thanks. let's get right to jane wells. she joins us live from l.a.x. good evening, jane. >> reporter: hey, larry. traffic slowly getting back to normal. dozens of flights canceled. hundreds of departures and arrivals delayed. terminal 3 where the shooting happened remains closed as well as the parking lot. airlines operating out of that terminal movi

>> i say there will be more training for tsa. this situation today will be a learning experience for tsa and passengers as well. that is going forward how will we respond as passengers, as tsa if something like this happens. there will be lessons learned here. but what i don't think will happen is a change of policy to make the tsa agents armed. as we have the situation now that has been anticipated. all the airports have law enforcement either there at the gate or very close to it. so that if something comes up that needs law enforcement intervention they're available 24/7. >> this is your field of expertise. you mentioned it's a learning moment for passengers. what the heck can passengers do? what additional training, what additional suggestions should go to passenger who is could find themselves in this kind of situation? >> well, one of the things that they saw on one of the social media inputs was that a passenger said we were there in the terminal, and we heard gunshots so we got down on the floor. the police came in and sa