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Two People Killed Following Shooting in L.A. Airport

Aired July 04, 2002 - 16:24   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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: And now let's go back to the tragedy at Los Angeles International Airport, the Bradley International Terminal there. Our Charles Feldman is on the scene. Charles, what are you learning at this moment?

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what I can tell you, Judy -- and by the way, if my cell phone goes off, I'm going to jump off with you because I'm expecting a lot of phone calls from people that I've been talking to about this story from the beginning. So my apologies in advance if that happens.

What we do hear is that the LAPD has at least two people in custody that they are talking to, that's one of the things that's very important here is that they are not being called suspects, but people that the police want to talk to. So we do not know at this hour whether these are people who have any role in the shooting at the El Al terminal, or the El Al ticket counter at Bradley or whether or not these are just what they call material witnesses. That is unclear at this time.

Much of what I told you before though, when I was on the phone making my way here, still stands. We've got a situation with an alleged gunman dead, with one person that he allegedly shot dead, with two other people, apparent bystanders, seriously wounded. There's the mystery of a person who was stabbed in the area. Unclear whether or not that person was stabbed by the alleged gunman or by another individual. Unclear whether or not there are any fugitives who are on the loose that the police have to find. And unclear at this time, Judy, whether or not the two individuals that are being questioned by police are material witnesses or suspects in this horrendous crime.

The only thing that's clear is that there isn't a whole lot of concrete information. Police and FBI still say that it is too early in the game, too early in the story, too early in this investigation to draw any firm conclusions whether this is terrorist-related. But they're certainly keeping an open mind. They are trying as best they can and as fast as they can to find out more information about the individual involved, who he is, why he was at the airport, why he opened fired and whether or not he had any accomplices. That is all we know -- Judy.

WOODRUFF: And, Charles, just to make it clear to our audience, the terminal has been completely evacuated and the people who are being held in custody, these were people who were on the scene? FELDMAN: That is also unclear, whether these are people who are witnesses to the crime or whether these are people who they suspect might have participated. You know, as you can well imagine, when something like this happens in a crowded terminal, you have absolutely an utter chaos. And it is understandable that it is going to be confusing and the police have no crystal balls. They're trying as hard as we are to find out some information.

WOODRUFF: All right. Charles Feldman is there. And we are going to let you be available if your phone rings because we know you are working several sources right now. Charles has been working this story by phone trying to get to the airport. It took him a while to get there, given the understandable traffic snarl right around LAX.

We can tell you that at 4:50 Eastern time, the FBI is planning a news conference to tell us what they know about the shooting. Here's what we do know at this point. A shooting took place, two are dead. The shooter is one of those who were dead. There were at least two others who were wounded, and we don't know much more about their conditions at this hour. There have been some conflicting reports on that. And the shooting did take place at the El Al ticket counter at the Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles Airport.

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