LAX Shooter Pleads Guilty To Murder Of TSA Officer

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A man who killed a Transportation Security Administration officer and wounded three other people after he opened fire inside a Los Angeles International Airport terminal in 2013 pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and other charges.

The plea agreement between Paul Ciancia, 26, and federal prosecutors will spare him the death penalty, but he still faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing was set for Nov. 7.

According to police, the New Jersey native fatally shot TSA Officer Gerardo I. Hernandez at a passenger ID checkpoint.

Hernandez was shot 12 times.

Once inside the terminal, Ciancia shot TSA Officers Tony Leroy Grigsby and James Maurice Speer along with a civilian, Brian Ludmer.

Authorities said Ciancia carried a signed handwritten note saying he wanted to kill TSA agents and "instill fear in your traitorous minds."

Witnesses of the shooting said he asked them whether they worked for the TSA. If they said no, he moved on.

According to police, Ciancia was shot in the neck and leg during a gun battle with airport police.

He spent two weeks recovering at a hospital before he was transferred to a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where he remains in custody.

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