Story highlights
- FBI unable to interview wounded LAX shooting suspect Paul Anthony Ciancia
- FBI has found no evidence of prior TSA incidents involving suspect
- Federal charges filed against Ciancia for murder of officer and violence in an airport
- Ciancia sent "angry, rambling" texts to his brother and father, police say
Paul Anthony Ciancia was a newcomer to Los Angeles -- a 23-year-old Catholic school graduate and son of a popular Fraternal Order of Police member back in New Jersey.
According to a profile emerging of the suspected gunman, he also harbored anti-government views and fears of an ominous New World Order when he walked into Los Angeles International Airport on Friday.
Police say Ciancia pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and opened fire in the airport, killing Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39, and wounding several others, including at least two other agents, in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault on members of the federal agency.
A federal criminal complaint was filed Saturday afternoon charging Ciancia with murder of a federal officer and commission of violence in an international airport, U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said.
Investigators unable to interview suspect
Ciancia remained hospitalized Saturday. FBI Special Agent in Charge David Bowdich described him as "unresponsive."
"We are unable to interview him, as of today," Bowdich said.
Asked at a news conference if Ciancia had any known run-ins with TSA officers, Bowdich said, "To this point, we have found none."
Shooter:"Are you TSA?"
Eyewitnesses said Friday's shooter walked from person to person, calmly asking, "Hey, are you TSA?"
"I just shook my head," Leon Saryan, a traveler at the airport, told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "And he kept going."
Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Transportation Security Administration Officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was killed in a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, November 1. Paul Ciancia, 23, armed with what police say was an assault rifle and carrying materials expressing anti-government sentiment, opened fire at LAX Terminal 3, killing Hernandez before being chased down. Ciancia has been charged with the murder of a federal officer and commission of violence at an international airport.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A passenger embraces a TSA screener at Los Angeles International Airport's Terminal 3 after it was reopened on Saturday, November 2 following a shooting. Four other people are recovering from injuries in the shooting.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – TSA Administrator John S. Pistole, left, and Ana Hernandez, wife of slain TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez, prepare for a news conference in Porter Ranch, California on November 2. The slain officer "was a wonderful husband, father, brother, son and friend," his widow said.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Injured traveler Bruce Reith, from Munich, Germany, is helped by two Los Angeles Airport Police officers as he makes his way on crutches to Terminal 3 for departure a day after injuring himself while escaping the shooting.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Workers tear down a temporary partition after Terminal 3 was reopened on November 2, a day after a shooting at LAX.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A Los Angeles Airport Police officer stands in front of Terminal 3 security screeners after law enforcement officials completed their investigation and prepare to reopen the terminal at LAX on November 2.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Police officers and emergency response officials meet outside Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport after gunshots were reported inside the terminal on November 1.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Transportation Security Administration employees hug outside Terminal 1.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – This photo, from Terminal 3, shows what appears to be a weapon on the ground. Police said a man "pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire" Friday, killing one person and injuring others before being shot and taken into custody.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Law enforcement officers gather in Terminal 3 near the scene of the shooting.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Passengers sit on a luggage conveyor belt behind check-in kiosks in Terminal 1.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Police check the area around Terminal 1.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Passengers evacuate the airport after the incident, which airport officials said began about 9:30 a.m. The gunfire and the airport's announcement of the incident provoked chaos among travelers, passengers said.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – People hide inside a bathroom stall at the airport after the gunshots were reported.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Thousands of travelers were delayed after the incident closed the airport for hours.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck talks with other responders at the airport Friday.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A police officer closes a road at the airport. The area around the airport was jammed with cars Friday morning as police shut down access.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Police officers stand guard atop Terminal 3.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Passengers are directed outside Terminal 2.
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Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A family walks through a tunnel as they leave the airport.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Passengers evacuated from Terminal 1 wait outside the airport.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – "People were running and people (were) getting knocked down. There was luggage everywhere," traveler Alex Neumann said. "Mayhem is the best I can describe it."
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – People wait in a terminal after flights were grounded because of the incident.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – Passengers wait on the curb after leaving the airport.
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Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A police officer directs traffic.
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Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – The gunfire reports led to a "ground stop" for arriving planes, said police and the Federal Aviation Administration.
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Photos: Photos: Gunfire at LAX
Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – A police officer diverts traffic trying to enter the airport.
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Fatal shooting at Los Angeles airport – First responders and emergency vehicles arrive at the airport.
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Video appears to show cuffed LAX suspect 00:48
FBI: LAX suspect is Paul Anthony Ciancia 01:55
How the LAX shooting unfolded 00:10
Ciancia was eventually shot multiple times in the chest and taken into custody as he allegedly continued his eerily calm run through the airport's Terminal 3.
He had enough ammunition to "have literally killed everyone in that terminal," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
Ex-roommate in L.A. shocked
In the hours after the attack, with the terminal at one of the world's busiest airports still closed, authorities were piecing together a picture of the man in hopes of finding answers.
If they're looking for telltale signs of trouble from before he moved to Los Angeles about a year and a half ago, nothing has emerged, at least publicly.
John Mincey, who said Ciancia was his roommate in a Los Angeles apartment complex until February, said he was "absolutely shocked" by the charges.
"From knowing this guy, I can't believe that he would -- it just doesn't make sense," Mincey told CNN affiliate KABC-TV.
"He would always talk about documentaries he would watch," but Ciancia never talked about "any hatred," Mincey said.
Mincey told KABC he had lunch last week with Ciancia, who said he was going to New Jersey for the holidays and hoped to make amends with his family.
No history of mental illness in New Jersey
Allen Cummings, the police chief in Ciancia's hometown of Pennsville, New Jersey, said Ciancia has no history of violence or recorded mental illness. Family members told police he didn't seem troubled the last time they saw him -- when he visited family for a wedding this summer.
"Obviously, you know, they're upset," Cummings told CNN. "I mean, this is a shock to them. It's a shock to our community."
Ciancia grew up in a quiet, wooded neighborhood just minutes from the Delaware Memorial Bridge, according to The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware. Houses there are far apart, nestled in the woods at the end of driveways sometimes hundreds of feet long.
He once worked in a popular auto repair shop owned by his father, an associate member of the local Fraternal Order of Police who neighbors say has always been known for how well he takes care of customers there.
Remembered as quiet high school student
The younger Ciancia graduated in 2008 from an all-boys Catholic school, the Salesianum School, in Wilmington, according to Brendan P. Kennealey, the school president.
Classmates there described him as awkward, saying he never fit in.
"In four years, I never heard a word out of his mouth," David Hamilton, who graduated with Ciancia in 2008, told the Los Angeles Times. "He kept to himself and ate lunch alone a lot. I really don't remember any one person who was close to him."
Texts alarmed family
It wasn't immediately clear Saturday why he moved across the country. But that may have been where the first signs of trouble began to surface.
In texts to his brother and father, Ciancia said he was unhappy and discouraged living in Los Angeles, according to an intelligence source with knowledge of the investigation. The source spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation.
It was one of those text messages that made his family think something bad was about to happen.
"Basically, the text message was just a message to the little brother, and the way it was written, they had some concern about it, and that's when they brought it to our attention," Cummings said.
The intelligence source described his texts as "angry" and "rambling."
Father called hometown police chief
The father called Cummings about 1:30 p.m. ET on Friday. Cummings, in turn, called the Los Angeles Police Department, asking them to check on him and make sure he was OK.
When they checked, he wasn't home.
The next Cummings heard, he said, were media reports linking Ciancia to the shooting.
Angry note found on suspect
A note found on the alleged shooter paints a picture of an angry young man.
The materials included a rant that appeared to refer to the New World Order as well as anti-TSA and anti-government claims, a federal law enforcement official said Saturday.
The New World Order is a common conspiracy theory focused on a secretive group of international elites bent on controlling the planet and forming a one-world government.
Sources: Note said "kill TSA"
Investigators found information on the suspect expressing not just anti-federal government sentiment but also anger at the TSA specifically, according to a federal law enforcement official.
Multiple reports cite police sources saying the note included language saying he wanted to "kill TSA" and "pigs."
The evolution of those thoughts, and how they may have led to Friday's bloody shooting, is a story that is yet to unfold.
"We are currently investigating his background and more about him," FBI Special Agent in Charge David Bowdich told reporters.
