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CNN Live At Daybreak

Fear, Confusion Interrupt Day of Holiday Travel

Aired July 05, 2002 - 05:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Turning back to that deadly shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport, early this morning the FBI identified the gunman as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian immigrant from Irvine, California. He's been living there for about 10 years. He was a legal resident. He worked as a limo driver. Police say he opened fire at the Israeli airline El Al ticket counter, killing two people, before an airline security guard shot and killed him. The motive still unclear.

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AGENT RON IDEN, FBI: At this point, we have no reason to believe that this was an act of terrorism. We will explore, we're exploring the motives of the subject. We will investigate this matter until we determine what his motives were and we'll continue that investigation along with the LAPD to its conclusion.

MARTIN POMEROY, L.A. POLICE CHIEF: We are going to have additional police officers very visible at this facility for the next few days, certainly through the weekend. I believe that every incoming passenger and every arriving passenger on an airplane will see an officer, either from the LAPD or from the L.A. Department of Airport Police, as they traverse this facility. We want people to feel safe and to feel comfortable. We don't want to minimize this incident, but we have yet to connect it to a larger risk anywhere at this facility or anywhere else in southern California.

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COSTELLO: Well, supposedly on this guy's driver's license his birthday was July 4, 1961. Of course, he had two different pieces of identification so we don't know which one is the right one, but on one of them his birth date, July 4, 1961.

An airport spokeswoman at LAX says travel should be back to normal this morning. Still, passengers will probably notice extra security.

CNN's Eric Horng has more on the terrorizing moments right after the shooting.

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ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fear and confusion on what was supposed to be a day of leisure travel for many at Los Angeles International Airport. A flurry of gunfire near a ticket counter of Israel's El Al Airlines, sending passengers scrambling for cover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It almost sounded like a fire cracker, too. It didn't really sound like a gunshot. I wasn't thinking it was a gun. Like I saw probably about half the people just drop down almost immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was one man. I think he shot four or five times and we just looked around and then we jumped to the floor and we saw another some guys who jumped over the man who was shooting. And I think some guy from a security, he shot the man in the stomach.

HORNG: At least three people were killed, one of them the suspected gunman, who was shot by an El Al security officer. At least two others were wounded in the incident.

RICHARD GARCIA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We had no indication that this thing is related to any other incident that might be out here. Right now we're looking at it as an isolated incident.

HORNG: The Tom Bradley International Terminal, where the shooting occurred, was evacuated. Thousands of travelers streaming out of the building, flights in and out of the entire airport halted temporarily.

Los Angeles police say they were already fully staffed at LAX for the July 4 holiday. After the shooting, officers were placed on tactical alert.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Eric Horng reporting. And we remind you, El Al is known as one of the most security conscious airlines in the entire world. You can find out more about the shooting and the suspect by logging onto our Web site, cnn.com.

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