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CNN Live Today

Authorities Do Not Know Motive of Yesterday's Shooting at LAX

Aired July 05, 2002 - 12:04   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: At Los Angeles Airport, flowers rest at a ticket counter. Bullet holes dot a wall, and at this hour authorities still do not know the motive for yesterday's deadly shooting. Let's turn to CNN's David Mattingly who is at LAX with the very latest. Hi there, David. Now, investigators are still trying to figure out the motive, but what kind of activity is taking place at the Tom Bradley International Terminal where all of this took place?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet remaining a huge mystery today. This father of five, a limo driver, an Egyptian national living in Irvine, California going on an unexplained rampage yesterday, killing two Israelis at the El Al ticket counter and injuring four others before being killed himself by security.

With us now is Nancy Castles, who is the Public Relations Director for LAX, and there is some news today about El Al. There is usually are flights coming in and out today but that is not the case today, correct?

NANCY CASTLES, LA AIRPORT SPOKESWOMAN: No, actually, El Al flight schedules change on a month-to-month basis and there is no flights scheduled for Friday.

MATTINGLY: No flights scheduled for Friday. Any other special things going on today to accommodate what has happened to El Al?

CASTLES: Not that I'm aware of.

MATTINGLY: You have added security here, a lot of uniformed police officers from the Los Angeles Police Department. What are they doing here and what are they watching for?

CASTLES: Well, since September 11, LAX has been on a state of heightened alert and we have had additional uniformed and plainclothes officers patrolling all of our facilities.

For the Fourth of July holiday weekend, we had an additional deployment of law enforcement officers, and as we go through this weekend, there are even more uniformed officers. All of our K-9 units, both for the Los Angeles Police Department Bomb Squad as well as our own LAX Airport Police K-9 Units are on patrol as well, all of this to act as a visible presence in order to reassure our passengers. MATTINGLY: And as we're standing here talking, easily dozens of people walking by with their suitcases prepared to take flights today. So much emphasis last night being placed on getting back to business as usual today, did you accomplish that?

CASTLES: Yes, we did. Shortly after midnight Friday morning, the last of the 35 flights that were affected by yesterday's incident departed here, took off from LAX. There were only three cancellations, all of them California flights to Mexico, but all in all, out of the 35 flights, there were about 10,500 passengers were affected but all of them took off except for the three cancellations.

MATTINGLY: OK, thank you Nancy Castles, Public Relations Director for LAX, and Fredricka back to you in Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right, thank you very much, David, I appreciate it.

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