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American Morning

Hadayet Armed with Two Handguns, Knife

Aired July 05, 2002 - 07:01   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: "Up Front" this morning, authorities say that the gunman who killed two people in Los Angeles International Airport was an Egyptian who came to America in 1992. Hesham Mohamed Hadayet was killed by an El Al Airlines security officer at the scene. Thousands of travelers were evacuated from that terminal after the attack.

David Mattingly has the latest now from the terminal where the shooting occurred -- good morning, David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

The investigation this morning shifting to Irvine, California and the home of an Egyptian national. The FBI has identified the LAX gunman as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet. He was a 41-year-old limo driver and father of five who had been living legally in the U.S. since 1992.

Hadayet walked into the LAX international terminal yesterday morning L.A. time and opened fire at the Israeli El Al ticket counter, killing two and injuring four others. Hadayet was then shot and killed by an El Al security guard.

According to authorities, Hadayet was armed with two handguns and extra ammo, as well as a knife. The question still remains was this an act of terrorism?

Last night the FBI was still unable to provide an answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT MCLAUGHLIN, FBI: I've never represented that there was not definitely a connection to terrorism. The caveat was is that we didn't have anything indicating definitively that there was. Absent that, we still couldn't discount the possibility that there might be some terrorism links. I'm not sure that this still confirms that this is a terrorist act. In fact, I don't think that it does. There's a great deal more investigation that needs to be done before we'd ever make a statement like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: It's possible that the gunman entered the international terminal through these doors, Leon. If that is the case, it is just a little over 50 paces to the El Al ticket counter. Authorities are crediting the quick action of security guards at El Al with preventing further loss of life.

HARRIS: Well, David, is there any more news yet about whether or not this man had any links to any terror groups or whether or not these two people who were, this man who had the gun and the person who was shot first, whether they knew each other or anything?

MATTINGLY: The last word we heard was the last word that we've just heard from the FBI. And this morning we are waiting for more information on that. Hopefully the FBI later will have some more insight into what links this gunman may have had to anyone here at El Al.

But at the moment, just looking at the people who were injured and the people who were killed, there doesn't appear to be a connection between him and any individual.

HARRIS: David Mattingly at LAX this morning.

Thanks, David.

We'll be checking back with you quite a bit throughout the morning and of course throughout the day here on CNN.

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