Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Shooting at LAX; News Conference on LAX Shooting

Aired November 01, 2013 - 14:52   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCOR: It looks like we have some officials walking toward the podium, so I'm going to stop talking. We can listen to them.

I do want to just tell you, as we watch them walk, CNN has now confirmed, as we've been reporting, one TSA agent is dead, another has been wounded from this shooting incident early this morning in and around the Terminal Three area of LAX.

Once again, this gunman did not quite breach the security checkpoint, but many, many people just absolutely terrified, running into bathrooms, running into offices, turning off their cell phones for fear that there could be someone else out there. They wanted to be quiet, fearing for their lives.

Let's take a listen.

MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES: Good morning.

I'm Mayor Eric Garcetti, here with representatives of law enforcement and the public safety community, as well as the administrators of this airport.

At about 9:20 this morning, I think most of us know now that an incident occurred here at the airport with a shooter who was actively involved in Terminal Three. I'll be having Chief Gannon from the airport police and LAWA Police give you a rundown of what occurred.

Gina Marie Lindsey, who is our executive director here at the airport, will inform the traveling public and their loved ones what the situation is here on the ground.

But let me just say a couple of things.

First of all, I want to thank the law enforcement community for their excellent and coordinated response to this incident. We believe this to be a static situation now, a safe one for those that are in the airport and one in which we are all confident we will be able to conduct the investigation necessary to get all the facts out that, no doubt, you and the public want to know.

Second, we're working very hard in the operations of the airport.

If you haven't been able to be in touch with a loved one who was already through security in one of the terminals, other than Terminal Three, flights have continued to take off at a slower pace, especially on the South Side, which is Terminals Four through Eight. And those folks may actually be in the air right now. So do not worry about that.

We have flights that are continuing to land. And Gina Marie Lindsey will walk through that, as well.

But, again, this is a situation. We're being proactive. If you have a flight this afternoon, we're encouraging you, at this point, to stay away from the airport, not because of the safety situation, but because the ongoing investigation makes it a very difficult place to come to and to travel to. Those folks that are here right now, we're encouraging folks to go to, if you're already in the terminal, the terminals besides Terminal Three are open and available, the USO and, of course, airport hotels that are close by. This will probably be at least a series of hours until we have the other terminals open, and for Terminal Three, an indefinite amount of time.

So with that, I'd like to turn it over to our chief on the ground here from the LAWA Police, Chief Gannon, to give you a rundown of the incident this morning.

CHIEF PATRICK GANNON, LOS ANGELES AIRPORT POLICE: Thank you, Mayor.

Patrick Gannon, G-A-N-N-O-N.

I'm the chief of airport police here at L.A. International Airport.

As the mayor indicated, at 9:20 this morning, an individual came into Terminal Three of this airport, pulled a assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire in the terminal.

He preceded up into the screening area, where TSA screeners are, and continued shooting, and went past the screeners back into the airport itself.

Personnel officers from airport police, Los Angeles Airport Police, responded immediately to the calls. They tracked the individual through the airport and engaged him in gunfire in Terminal Three and were able to successfully take him into custody.

We had an officer involved in the shooting that took place.

As you can imagine, an amount -- a large amount of chaos took place during this entire incident. We believe at this point that there was a lone shooter, that he acted, at least right now, was the only person that was armed in this incident. There's a tremendous amount of investigative work that will need to be done and I will turn that over to the FBI in just a second and in a little bit.

But nonetheless, we have done security sweeps through the entire airport. We feel confident that this particular incident is tied to Terminal Three and Terminal Three only.

And that's all we have right now.

There's a tremendous amount of investigative work that will need to be accomplished. We have multiple victims that have been shot and have been transported. And we've had some other injuries, as well, in addition to the suspect himself.

So I don't have much more information than that. I don't want to give out information that may not be consistent later on. And so I appreciate your cooperation and just getting this little bit of information out now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, in terms of the injuries...

(CROSSTALK)

GARCETTI: Hold on. We're going to take questions at the end.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- can you tell us...

GARCETTI: Next, we're going to hear from Gina Marie Lindsay, who is the executive director of LAWA, and let folks know in terms of what is happening here at the airport with flights, with the traveling public, with the traffic around the airport right now.

Gina Marie Lindsey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What -- can you say what...

GARCETTI: Hold on one second, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- employees here at the airport (INAUDIBLE)...

GARCETTI: We'll take questions after, sir.

GINA MARIE LINDSEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I want to let everyone know that, technically, LAX is still accepting incoming flights, but we doing that at less than our half of our normal arrival rate. We are only accepting those flights on the South Airfield. We are not accepting any flights on the North Airfield.

Passengers that were ready to leave at the time this incident happened have either left on their aircraft or they are holding in the terminal. All of the amenities are available in the terminals. We have aircraft that are also situated on the west remote pads. They have not been unloaded yet.

There is one or two diversions that we are making to Ontario Airport. I want to encourage any of you who expect to have flights out of this airport this afternoon, please check with your airline. The best -- very best up to date information that you can get would be on our Twitter line, which is LAX_official. Again, LAX_official. And that is going to be the most real time information you can get.

We understand there are many people that were not quite in the airport yet when this happened. We encourage you to find a place at some of the hotels along Century Boulevard. And we will, as soon as possible, we will let you know, when we will try to get back to full operation. But understand that will take quite a deal of time. It's going to be a logistics -- a carefully orchestrated logistical ballet to ensure that we can get people reprocessed and back on their flights. I think it's fair to say that almost every flight out of LAX today will be significantly late.

Thank you.

GARCETTI: Next, we have Jim Featherstone, who is our fire chief. Today is his first day as our interim fire chief. He also runs the emergency operations center as the general manager of our emergency management department and will speak to both the fire and emergency operations center activities.

JAMES FEATHERSTONE, ACTING LOS ANGELES FIRE CHIEF: Good morning.

Jim Featherstone, F-E-A-T-H-E-R-S-T-O-N-E.

At this time, the LAFD has treated seven patients, transported six to area hospitals. We have approximately 100 firefighters committed to this incident.

As Chief Gannon said, the incident initially started somewhere around 9:20. At 9:28, the first LAFD resources were on scene.

In terms of a more heightened awareness and a coordinated effort citywide, the city's emergency operations center has been activated at level one. It has been for well over two hours now.

So the city is standing tall and leaning forward to deal with any associated issues that happen outside of the actual LAX property.

GARCETTI: Thank you.

Next, we'll hear from the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, who is involved in this and some of operations, as well.

Our chief, Charlie Beck.

CHARLIE BECK, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, POLICE CHIEF: Very briefly, I want to commend the men and women of the LAWA PD and their response to this incident. We have created a unified command with not only, Los Angeles Police Department, TSA and the FBI, LASO, and other agencies.

We will treat this incident with the unified command. Many, many details, as you are interested, will not be given out at this point. We will not speak about the nature of injuries. We will not speak about the identity of the suspect. The investigation is being handled by the FBI, with the cooperation of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Again, tremendous unified response. I know that this region worries about its airport because of the complex issues involving with various jurisdictions. It was handled very well today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on one second. We will next hear from the FBI special agent in charge, Special Agent Bowditch, to talk a little bit about the investigation.

DAVID BOWDITCH, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Hi, David Bowditch, special agent in charge of the FBI -- B as in boy, O-W-D-I-T-C-H.

First off, we're working hand in hand with our partners here to include the Los Angeles Police Department, the L.A. Airport Police, in respect to this investigation.

This investigation is ongoing. I'm going to give you very little facts today, very few facts. We're working with the U.S. attorney's office as well as all our partners. I'm not going to talk about the victims today. We still have people we have to be in contact with in the meantime.

We're going to bring our resources to bear in conjunction with our partners here, which would include our evidence response team and any other necessary resources. At this point, we do not see any additional threats here at the airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Finally, our last speaker will be Council Member Mike Bonin, and then we will take questions after that. I want to thank Mr. Bonin, and his office who has responded and helped not only with the traffic and all the traveling public that is here today as well.

One last note I want to say because we will take questions just after, I want to thank officers from the Los Angeles World Airports department, police department here, whose heroic acts saved lives here today. And we thank them for that.

Mike Bonin.

MIKE BONIN, LOS ANGELES COUNCILMAN: Thank you. Good morning.

I just want to reiterate something the mayor said and thank the first responders here today. LAPD, the Los Angeles World Airport Police, the fire department, TSA, FBI, there's a natural human instinct when you hear gunfire to flee or to duck. The folks who are here today coordinating our folks who when they hear gunshots run towards them and save lives.

And to watch the unified command here today work together professionally and seamlessly is awe-inspiring. The people of Los Angeles are in very good hands. I also want to thank the public for their patience and their cooperation so far and ask for that to continue throughout the day. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will have Chief Gannon to come forward now for any questions.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: We have two fatalities and one critical. Can you tell us the number of known fatalities?

PATRICK GANNON, LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS POLICE CHIEF: No, because I'm not sure to be honest with you what we have yet as far as that goes. The fire department is rectifying all that information.

QUESTION: Can you explain why the FBI is the lead agency?

GANNON: Well, this is an airport that has federal jurisdiction. We have FBI assets here on board, and it's a unified command involving everybody, but the investigative lead has been decided to take by the FBI.

QUESTION: Is the shooter a federal employee?

GANNON: I don't know.

QUESTION: Was he ever?

GANNON: I don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: ... indicate why he was doing this?

GANNON: Not that I'm aware of.

QUESTION: Chief, of course, there were earlier reports of multiple suspects. As recently as 10, 15 minutes ago, we saw a person who was in handcuffs. Can you explain what we're seeing here?

GANNON: No. In a dynamic situation where things unfold so rapidly, and many people come in, there is always chaos in any type of event like this. And there's always the -- everybody is always thinking forward as to whether or not there's additional suspects.

As we stand here right now, there is only one individual that is responsible for this, as we know, as the active shooter that was in our terminal. And I want to follow up a little bit on what mayor said regarding the officers that went in after this individual.

This individual was shooting as he went into the terminal. The officers didn't -- I repeat, they didn't hesitate. They went after this individual, and they confronted this individual in our airport. And, unfortunately, it involved an officer-involved shooting, but that's what needed to be done in that particular situation, and that was heroic.

We practice this. Not more than three weeks ago, we took every one of our officers, our patrol officers, and a couple hundred officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, and we practiced the exact scenario that played out today, we played out today, and I was talking to the officers involved in this particular incident a few minutes ago.

And they said that that training was critical to how they responded to this. So they're well-trained officers. And all of the agencies that came in, whether it's from Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, LAPD is here on campus with us every day and works hand in hand. Hawthorne, the sheriff's, everybody in Inglewood, everybody came in to help us get through this particular incident and we appreciate their help. (CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Why are you not addressing that? Why are you not -- you must have that information.

(CROSSTALK)

GANNON: No, that's not true.

And, one, I don't know that information at all. We have -- obviously trying to develop information on the suspect. That's the FBI's responsibility, as with the help of the Los Angeles Police Department in their follow-up investigation. And that will be determined. But if you're asking me whether or not that information is clear right at that point, I'm telling you it's not, and that's the official word, and that's the truth.

(CROSSTALK)

GANNON: I'm sorry.

QUESTION: Are you saying you don't know who the shooter is?

QUESTION: Chief, how far...

(CROSSTALK)

GANNON: The suspect got back very far into a terminal. There's a Burger King that is quite a ways away from the screening station, and he was able to get back there.

(CROSSTALK)

GANNON: I appreciate all the questions. We will have more information here shortly. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know a lot of people want to have other questions. I'm going to say something briefly for the Spanish press that is here. Other questions, folks can go offline. We will, I promise you, give you as much information as we can release as soon as we have that.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so he's speaking in Spanish.

We're going to pull away. You just heard a number of people from fire to L.A. Airport police to LAPD. That was Chief Charlie Beck talking, but at the top, it was the mayor, it was Eric Garcetti.

And just a couple of notes that I just want to pass along, if you're just tuning in here and you're watching here. He said it is a static situation now inside LAX, that it is safe for those in the airport. But what we heard, what I heard that is new, at least, is a little more of a ticktock, a chronology, if you will, as far as this shooter is concerned.

So this is from the chief of airport police. This is what he just announced, that this gunman pulled an assault rifle out of his bag and began to open fire. He proceeded then, after opening fire, into the security screening area, got past screeners, got back into the airport itself. We heard that from one of the eyewitnesses, because some shoes potentially from the shooter were found near a gate.

You just heard Chief Beck saying that this guy was able to get deep enough into a Burger King, which is presumably pretty deep beyond airport security in the airport. L.A. Airport Police were able to track the shooter through the airport, they shot at him, they took him into custody. We now know he's in a hospital. In that shoot-out, there was an officer-involved shooting, according to the airport police chief.

And this is huge. They do believe that it was a lone shooter. They believe this individual, who is now being treated at a hospital, was the only person armed, and so the security sweeps that have been happening throughout this entire massive airport today, and they feel confident this is isolated to terminal three.

So we're going to get into the victims and some of the injuries in just a moment.

But, Deborah Feyerick, let me go straight to you, because a couple things I want to talk about, first and foremost, because we're not getting a lot, we're not getting a lot as far as injuries from these officials, but you have this through your sources that this has been a fatal shooting.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we got it from actually two sources that, in fact, one of the TSA agents was indeed killed during this shooting.

Apparently, according to the chief, the gunman pulled an assault rifle from his bag, and then walked towards the area, the security checkpoint and opened fire on the TSA screeners. Now, interestingly, the chief suggests that this was a targeted shooting because he says that it was isolated to terminal three and terminal three only, or that it was tied to terminal three and terminal three only.

He was able to get through that checkpoint. He continued firing, and at that point, we are told that as he approached a gate, that's when an LAPD officer opened fire. We're told by a source that the gunman was shot multiple times in the chest. He was wounded.

He's at a hospital now being treated, but he was able to breach that security area and was able to make it into the terminal. So clearly now police are pulling all the surveillance video to see how exactly this played out. They were in the parking lot, they were looking for his car. There was a fear that perhaps there were -- there might have been explosives or other devices in the car. They were checking for that.

We're told that the TSA agent, at least one was shot fatally. We're also told another was shot in the leg. A lot of the injuries, Brooke, though, occurred as people began to run. They were panicked. There was a stampede that occurred in that terminal. So, right now, they're looking, but we understand that three people were shot, one fatally, one of them the gunman and another injured in the leg -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Deborah, thank you, and also we heard from the interim fire chief. He said L.A. Fire treated seven patients and transported six.

Tom Fuentes -- Tom Fuentes is joining me. He's a CNN law enforcement analyst, former FBI.

Tom, you heard multiple people speaking just then at the news conference. What jumped out to you?

TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Brooke.

I think the fact that so far it appears to be one lone shooter, not multiple people involved, not a huge conspiracy. You know, that is hopeful that that's the case, and not other people out there with guns potentially threatening other people. So that pretty much is a big story here.

The second thing is whether or not the confirmation is true about it being a TSA officer that had been killed in that. But, as mentioned earlier, those officers are unarmed as they operate the magnetometers and the other screening equipment at airport checkpoints.

So someone with an assault rifle would have no problem shooting at them, overwhelming them, and getting past them, if you will, and penetrating airport security, even just one person, much less if it was multiple. And by the time they get to that checkpoint at the machines, there is no security earlier in the process.

They get out of their vehicle, or take a bus or taxi to the airport. They go in, they go to the ticket counters. They get boarding passes, if they do move on toward the security checkpoint. That would be the first time anybody would try to see if they were armed with either explosives or knives, guns, any other dangerous equipment.

Apparently, that's what happened. This person got to that checkpoint, pulled a weapon out of the bag, and opened fire.

BALDWIN: Here's my other quick question for you. It was one of the questions the reporters were shouting out. The fact that the FBI, the FBI is taking the lead on this investigation, why is that?

FUENTES: Well, in addition to the fact that it's an airport, it's also unknown if this is an act of either domestic terrorism or an act of international terrorism, if it's later learned that the individual was part of an organization, and the shooting of the TSA officer in and of itself gives the FBI primary jurisdiction because of a shooting, whether it be a killing, or attempted killing, of a federal officer.

That alone would give the FBI primary jurisdiction in this case.

BALDWIN: Got it. Tom Fuentes, stay with me.

Mary Schiavo, let me bring you in, former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

And, Mary, you can talk us through, as Tom was discussing, and now we have this new information that this gunman, I don't know how quickly within the airport, within those airport doors, began to open fire, pull into this bag, pull out, as the LAPD is describing, this assault rifle, and open fire.

But I think about not just people who are obviously in line and waiting for ticketing and things of that nature, but just airport personnel, folks working the ticketing counters, people, these TSA agents, one of whom we now know has been shot and killed, what kind of training do they have for incidents like this?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER TRANSPORTATION INSPECTOR GENERAL: Well, the persons who work in law enforcement at the airport have very detailed training and training exactly on these kinds of incidents.

And the TSA personnel, they're trained to try to defuse incidents. And it's interesting that just a week ago, I think it was one of the major newspapers, they were talking about the TSA trying to make checkpoints less stressful, trying to take the -- take the stress point, back away from the stress areas and to keep people from snapping, if you will.

So they're trained to defuse at the checkpoint, although, obviously, there are other law enforcement officers at the airport who are trained to react to a lethal situation, including with lethal force if necessary. And also the FBI, I should add that they do have jurisdiction over this because endangering flight, crimes against aviation, are federal crimes. When you endanger a flight, it's a federal crime, so you get federal agents, too, so that's another reason.

BALDWIN: What about, though, Mary, just the people who are sitting behind those ticketing counters, right, where the kiosks are? Right when you just walk on in, there's no security, at least tangible security as you walk in. In a situation like this, are those people trained? Is there a button to press?

SCHIAVO: They have to call security. And they have to call -- for example, they call LAPD, they call airport police if someone at the ticket counter is a danger. They have to call police just like the rest of us do.

They're supposed to be trained by their airlines to -- of course, it's airline personnel -- to defuse a situation, try to be calm, but as everybody knows, tempers flare in the airport, and it's not always a calm situation. But here, they would have had to call for law enforcement just like anyone else would have.

BALDWIN: We know police, law enforcement, they were on the scene within minutes, rapid response, coordinated response. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much.

And as we're learning a little bit more as far as what happened inside of LAX now just about three ho hours, more than three hours ago, let's talk about the scene outside currently.

Casey Wian joins me from outside the airport.

Casey, set the scene for me.

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, the script, the scene has been absolutely flipped in just the past hour.

I think you will remember that we showed you this road a little while ago. And traffic on that empty side was completely bumper to bumper, just absolute gridlock. That has now all been cleared out, and traffic is actually very light and moving there. Now you can see a fire truck that's going to go into the picture, leaving Los Angeles International Airport.

But what you can see all along the side here, along this road, is people have now parked their personal vehicles, waiting to pick up people from LAX, people who can't get cabs at the airport. We have seen people with luggage all morning walking toward LAX and leaving LAX. It's kind of a makeshift parking lot, if you will, waiting to pick up passengers.

We have cabs out here as well because they're clearly not allowed to go in and out of LAX, as they usually do. As you heard in that news conference, airport officials saying that takeoffs and landings are still going on at some runways here, about half their normal level. We have not heard any takeoffs and landings in perhaps the past 10, 15 minutes or so.

It's been a lot quieter. Right after the shooting, there still were some planes that were landing on this runway over here that you're looking at. Right now, though, they have got it shut down. here, we can see some of these passengers who are actually being forced to walk to LAX, because they cannot get into the airport with their vehicles. So very chaotic situation still unfolding outside the airport -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, Casey, thank you so much.

As part of the news conference, we just heard from the executive director of LAX. If you're planning to head out of that airport at all later today, check with your airline or go to the Twitter account of LAX. It's @LAX_official for the latest information there. Certainly expect massive delays.

We're now going to get a quick break in, as we have been covering this breaking news for just about three hours or so, this active shooter inside one of the busiest airports in the country. We're hearing from those who heard and saw this gunman open fire, terrifying ordeal for hundreds and hundreds of passengers. We are going to hear from one man who is actually a World Trade Center survivor who endured this horror earlier this morning.

Also hearing from actor Tim Daly, who was inside as well. Be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Breaking news here at CNN, as we have been following this breaking situation out of Los Angeles International Airport from just about three-plus hours ago. These are pictures from outside on the left- hand side of the screen, as many, many people here are still waiting to see how much longer they have to stay at the airport after a gunman walked into -- this is according to the LAX police chief -- walked inside of this airport right around 9:20 this morning, local time, opened fire, proceeded then into the airport screening area, past the screeners, and then got deep enough into the airport itself, according to different eyewitnesses, and LAPD specifically.

They're describing the gunman as wearing grayish camouflage, had this, according to LAPD, assault rifle which he pulled out of a bag and began shooting. This became an officer-involved shooting. Seven people were hurt, six taken to the hospital, six, including the gunman, who was taken down by law enforcement.

We can also tell you, according to sources, that one TSA agent right there in and around the screening area was shot and killed. Another has been wounded. So that is more or less the latest that we have. But we just heard from the mayor of Los Angeles, we heard from fire, we heard from police saying this is a safe situation isolated inside the terminal three area.

We have also heard now some word from this from the White House. Let me take just you to that. This is Jay Carney speaking just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has been briefed on the incident at Los Angeles International Airport by Alyssa Mastromonaco, his deputy chief of staff, and he will be regularly updated on unfolding events there.

At this point, the lead is the LAPD. But we're obviously at the federal level in touch with law enforcement officials on the ground and will -- the president will be updated as the afternoon progresses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The lead, as we have now heard from the news conference, is the FBI, with LAPD assisting there, and also according to the mayor.

They believe, this is according to police as well, a lone shooter, it was a lone-shooter situation, feel confident again that was isolated to that particular terminal in the airport.

But as we continue to hear from people who happened to be inside, happened to hear some of these gunshots, an absolutely horrifying ordeal, I want to go to Chuck Ocheret, who joins me now on the phone. Chuck, can you hear me?

CHUCK OCHERET, WITNESS: Yes, I can. Can you hear me?

BALDWIN: I can, yes, sir. Let's just begin with, how are you? Are you OK?

OCHERET: I'm fine, pretty calm at this point, sort of overcoming the initial adrenaline rush of having sort of felt such personal danger.

But, yes, we're -- at this point, things are much less dramatic. There's much less of a visible police presence outside, and they just keep telling us we just have to wait now until things are clear.

BALDWIN: Take me back to this morning. Did you hear the shots? Where were you?

OCHERET: I was standing around gate 30 -- or actually I was sort of walking from gate 30 to the food court. Gate 30, I think, is the gate that's closest to where the security barriers are.

And I just heard two loud pops behind me. And I don't know. It didn't -- it didn't strike me as gunfire at the time. I just thought there were loud sounds, something had fallen. But then I heard this mad rush of people. And there was a stampede of people coming from that direction, trying to get away.

And then other people seeing the stampede started to panic. And nobody really knew what was going on. I didn't understand that there were gunshots. People were saying, what was that, what was that? People were yelling to their friends, get in the bathrooms. Get around the corner. Hide behind something.

I started to run away from -- in the same direction as the general flow of people, and there's an escalator that goes down to the corridor that leads to the baggage claim area, and I just figured that was a good way to get away from whatever was happening up at that level.

A number of people were running down that way anyway. So, we ran down the stairs, with all of our luggage and carry-ons and everything in hand, ran down a very long corridor, which was kind of a -- it's a very long way to run where you feel like there might be crosshairs on your back or something. But when we got to the exit from the secure area, before baggage claim, the security guard there really didn't know what was going on.

She was a little flabbergasted by all the people who came rushing. She was trying to speak on a walkie-talkie, but really couldn't get much information. She kept saying, if you go out, you're not going to be able to come back in.

And then, all of a sudden, police appeared and yelled for all of us to hit the ground. And that's what we did. Everyone was down on the floor. The police ran the other way up the corridor, and eventually, additional police showed up and said, everybody up. Out of the building as fast as you can. And we proceeded to (AUDIO GAP) out of the building and directly across as straight as possible to the (AUDIO GAP) over there, and sort of hunkered down (AUDIO GAP) figuring that I was relatively safe, surrounded by the concrete.

And, eventually, the police kind of ushered us, herded us to this international terminal, which, you know, somebody told me it was terminal two. Somebody else said it's a different terminal. It's the international terminal, has some other name. And since then, we have just been hunkered down here.

BALDWIN: So, here you are rushing with your bags, in your words, feeling like the crosshairs are on your back. You hear these pops.

Chuck, at what point did you realize those weren't just pops, they were gunshots?

OCHERET: I realized it when the police came and told us to hit the ground.

And I didn't mention, there were actually four additional pops. And I think somebody said to me, and I really didn't perceive it -- I heard -- hit the ground -- he said something -- the policeman said something before that. Somebody said that they said, shooter hit the ground.

So at that point, I had the sense -- people were asking each other what was going on. The general consensus was, yes, there was some gunfire. And it made sense, because I had heard the popping sounds.

BALDWIN: Chuck...

OCHERET: But I didn't expect to hear a gun going off. So it didn't make sense to me at the time.

BALDWIN: I have talked to a number of people who heard and saw what you're describing, and they have said to me, you know, Brooke, this has been the most horrifying ordeal of my life.

You, sir, endured, survived 9/11. You were at the World Trade Center. Did this just bring that back for you?

OCHERET: It did in a number of different ways.

I mean, it's very different experiences in some ways, but that sense of being, you know, a person in peril, a sense of, you know, complete chaos (AUDIO GAP) the scale of it doesn't really compare to, you know, seeing your office building go down (AUDIO GAP) but in the moment, where you're essentially running for your life, it's much the same. And it (AUDIO GAP) really just, it brought back a lot of bad feelings.

BALDWIN: Chuck Ocheret, many people this morning who had the feeling of running for their lives, thank you so much. We're glad you're OK.

Once again, seven people hurt from this shooting situation at terminal three at LAX, six taken to the hospital, and also at the hospital, the gunman.

Deborah Feyerick has been breaking information here on this story from her sources.

Deborah, I understand you have new information right now. What can you tell me?

FEYERICK: What we can tell you is that the gunman who was able to breach the security checkpoint and get close to a gate was indeed shot multiple times in the chest, right, center mass.