Egyptian Immigrant Identified as Airport Gunman
nytimes.com
By RICK LYMAN and NICK MADIGAN
LOS ANGELES, July 5 — The F.B.I. has identified the man who went on
a Fourth of July rampage at an El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles's
international airport as an Egyptian.
Two people were killed and several more were injured when the man —
armed with a .45-caliber semiautomatic Glock pistol, a 9-millimeter handgun
and a 6-inch knife — went on the rampage before he was shot to death by an
El Al airline security guard after another guard had knocked him to the floor.
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The F.B.I. has identified the gunman as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, a
41-year-old limousine driver. Late Thursday, agents and police searched his
apartment in the Los Angeles suburb of Irvine, about 35 miles southeast of the
airport, apparently looking for any possible links to terrorism.
Thursday's attack, taking place on the Fourth of July holiday, when security
officials had been on particularly keen watch for terrorist acts, prompted an
immediate shutdown of the Thomas Bradley International Terminal at the
airport and the rerouting and curtailment of dozens of flights. Investigators for
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Mayor James K. Hahn were quick
to say that there was no immediate evidence of any political motivation behind
the attack. Some witnesses described the incident as an argument between
two people that spun out of control.
But Israeli officials said that as far as they were concerned, it was a terrorist
act.
"The fact that the person chose El Al, Israel's national airline, and that the
attack took place today of all days, seems to indicate a connection," Meirav
Eilon Shahar, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Consulate here, told reporters on
Thursday.
Despite Israel's stance, the F.B.I. has withheld comment on whether it
believes it was a terrorist attack until it can further investigate Mr. Hadayet.
"We've never said it's not terrorism," Matt McLaughlin, an F.B.I. spokesman
told The Associated Press. "We can't rule that out, but there's nothing to
indicate terrorism at this point."
Authorities said Mr. Hadayet had two driver's licenses listing two different
birthdays — one showing it as April 7, 1961, and the other July 4, 1961.
Mr. Hadayet's car, a black Mercedes, was found in a parking garage at the
Los Angeles airport and police briefly cleared the structure as a bomb squad
searched the vehicle for explosives. None were found, according to officials.
The Associated Press spoke with neighbors of Mr. Hadayet who described
him as quiet. But they said he had become incensed when an upstairs
neighbor hung large American and Marine Corps flags from a balcony after
the Sept. 11 attacks. The flags, which remained in place on Thursday, hung
just above Mr. Hadayet's front door.
A neighbor, identified by The A.P. as Steve Thompson, said that Mr.
Hadayet has complained to the apartment manager about the flags. "He
thought it was being thrown in his face," Mr. Thompson said.
In addition to the two people Mr. Hadayet is accused of killing, four others
were treated at area hospitals for injuries he inflicted, officials said.
Ralph Rodriguez, a spokesman for Mexicana Airlines, whose ticket counter is
adjacent to El Al's, said that a Mexicana supervisor had overheard the
gunman having a heated argument at the El Al counter, apparently involving
his documentation. Soon afterward, the shooting started, Mr. Rodriguez said.
One witness, a Frenchman traveling to Toronto who would give only his first
name, Hervé, said he had heard a shot. He turned and saw the gunman
standing and firing, with a straight arm toward the El Al counter, he recalled.
"I cannot tell you the man's nationality," the witness said.
Hervé said he had seen a woman behind the counter fall to the ground after
being hit.
There were about three dozen people waiting in the El Al ticketing line, Hervé
said, and when the shooting began they all threw themselves to the floor.
Hervé said he counted about seven shots fired. The Mexicana supervisor said
it was 8 or 10.
When he stood back up, Hervé said, the El Al security officials were trying to
aid their stricken ticket agent, the gunman was dead on the floor and near him
was another victim.
Zvi Vapni, the deputy consul general for Israel in Los Angeles, said the
airline's chief of security, Haim Sapil, shot and killed the gunman. Mr. Sapil
was being treated for minor knife wounds, Mr. Vapni said.
The gunman was moving toward the El Al ticket counter with his weapons
exposed when Mr. Sapil and another security guard spotted him and reached
for their own weapons, Mr. Vapni said. The other guard grabbed the gunman
and wrestled him to the ground.
"They were fighting on the floor when Mr. Sapil intervened and shot the
perpetrator," Mr. Vapni said.
The police described the dead woman as being in her 20's. The other dead
man was identified as Jacob Aminov, a 46-year-old Israeli diamond importer
who was living in Valley Village, Calif., who had come to the airport to drop
someone off for a flight.
Mr. Aminov died shortly after noon at the Martin Luther King/Drew Medical
Center from a single gunshot wound and had arrived at the hospital in cardiac
arrest, the police said. He never regained consciousness, they said.
The injured were described by the police as Mr. Sapil, who suffered a minor
wound to the back and a gunshot to the knee area, an unidentified male in his
20's who was pistol-whipped, a 61-year-old woman who was shot in the
foot, and a 63-year-old woman who complained of chest pains after the
incident.
The attack is certain to add impetus to a $9.6 billion plan proposed earlier this
week by Mayor Hahn to renovate the airport and upgrade its security
facilities. The key to the system proposed by the mayor is that everyone
would be screened for weapons at a new ground transportation terminal a
mile east of the airport, before they even came onto airport property. They
would take shuttle buses to the passenger terminals.
"The idea is to build enough space, so that you can screen everybody before
they get into the terminal," Mayor Hahn said. |
