- Title: USA/ISRAEL: REACTIONS TO THE SHOOTING AT LOS ANGELES AIRPORT
- Date: 4th July 2002
- Summary: (W1) LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 4, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV PEOPLE OUTSIDE LAX AIRPORT 0.06 2. LV AIRPORT TOWER AND PAN TO DEPARTURE 0.12 3. SV SET UP INTERVIEW HAKIM HAFIDH, WITNESS 0.14 4. MCU (English) HAKIM HAFIDH, WITNESS, SAYING: "I was in line getting ready to check in, I was just handing in my luggage - I heard two shots and then I turned around to see what's happening and then I saw this guy with a revolver in his hand, shooting at the counter next door to me, to the left of me. And I moved away slightly. And a guy jumped on him, a second guy came up - I don't know, they were only civilians, I think the first guy was not airport staff but a civilian, the second guy - I talked to him later - he wasn't staff either, and the third person I think was a security guy because he shot him." 0.50 5. SLV PEOPLE OUTSIDE AIRPORT 0.58 6. PULL-OUT FROM LAPD SIGN ON CAR TO POLICE CARS IN FRONT OF AIRPORT 1.06 7. PAN OVER AIRPORT BUILDINGS 1.11 8. SLV MAYOR PRESSER 1.15 9. MCU (English) LOS ANGELES MAYOR JAMES HAHN SAYING: "Two civilians have been killed, the suspect was subdued and killed by security personnel working at El Al." 1.26 10. SV PRESSER 1.28 11. MCU (English) LOS ANGELES MAYOR JAMES HAHN SAYING: "We have no indication that suggests that this incident is connected to any terrorist event but the matter is under investigation right now and will continue to do so under the FBI." 1.41 12. SLV PRESSER 1.45 13. LV VARIOUS OF SECURITY AT LAX (3 SHOTS) 2.06 HERZELIA, ISRAEL (JULY 5, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. MCU (English) ISRAELI TRANSPORT MINISTER EPHRAIM SNEH SAYING: "We don't have adequate evidence that this is a terrorist attack. We assume that this is a terror attack on El Al passengers, and just shows us that global terror is still active. They try to carry out these terror operations everywhere on the globe." 2.36 15. SV SNEH SPEAKING TO PRESS 2.40 16. MCU (English) ISRAELI TRANSPORT MINISTER EPHRAIM SNEH SAYING: "We have some information that he is of Sudanese origin, but for this moment we don't know if he is affiliated to a certain terrorist group." 2.57 (W1) BEN GURION AIRPORT, NEAR TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL (JULY 5, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 17. SLV EL AL DIRECTOR GENERAL AMOS SHAPIRA SPEAKING TO PRESS 3.04 18. CU JOURNALIST TAKING NOTES 3.10 19. MCU (English) EL AL DIRECTOR GENERAL AMOS SHAPIRA SAYING: "According to the information we know and I am authorized to give you that yesterday at 9:00 Israel time an attacker shot in the area of the checking-in in Los Angeles airport and at that time there were 10 passengers in the checking-in area. The passengers were supposed to fly on El Al flight number 106 to Tel Aviv via Toronto and in Toronto 75 more people were scheduled to go on board. Now, according to the information we have, there were 3 casualties, one of them unfortunately died, an employee of a subcontractor of El Al that gives services to El Al." 4.22 20. SV SHAPIRA GIVING PRESSER 4.33 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 19th July 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / BEN GURION AIRPORT, NEAR TEL-AVIV, HERZELIA, ISRAEL
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Reuters ID: LVA1CUYTE69I0YKYVZQJ9YJ4S6QP
- Story Text: El-Al Director General Amos Shapira has referred to the
Los Angeles airport attacker as a shooter, unlike Israeli
ministers who have referred to him as a terrorist. Shapira
provided limited details of the incident and had not commented
on the origin of the attacker.
The shooting at the world's third busiest airport
heightened anxiety across a nation already jittery on its
first Independence Day anniversary since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The FBI said there was no indication of a terrorist
connection in the mid-morning airport shooting, which ended
swiftly when security guards employed by Israel's national
airline shot and killed the 52 year-old assailant.
Five other people were injured.
One eyewitness, Hakim Hafidh described the gunman as
"very, very calm" as he shot a woman behind the El Al ticket
counter. Hafidh described the shooter as bespectacled,
clean-shaven and carrying no luggage.
The identity and nationality of the gunman was not known.
Los Angeles police said there was no information to
indicate any risk or alert to other venues either in Los
Angeles or the rest of the nation, which has been tense after
a series of government warnings about the possibility of
attacks by al Qaeda extremists at traditional Independence Day
celebrations of fireworks and parades.
Information was scant and conflicting about what happened
inside the international terminal and any possible motive.
The two people shot dead by the gunman were a 46 year-old
man, and a woman in her 20s.
Among the injured, one man was being treated for knife
wounds and another for injuries sustained when he was pistol
whipped. Two other people suffered heart trouble set off by
the shooting.
Airport security around the nation has been tightened
since Sept. 11 with particular emphasis on Los Angeles because
it had been listed as a target in a failed plot by Algerian
extremists to bomb buildings over the millennium. However,
most of the security enhancements have been in passenger and
baggage screening in the gate areas, rather than at ticket
counters.
El Al, Israel's national airline, probably has the
toughest security precautions of any airline, developed in
response to a series of attacks by Arab and Islamic militants
on its operations during the 1960s and early 1970s.
California Gov. Gray Davis encouraged Americans to go
ahead with their Independence Day plans since there is no
indication of a terrorist attack.
"We have no indication that suggests that this incident is
connected to any terrorist event but the matter is under
investigation right now and will continue to do so under the
FBI," he said.
But first reports of the incident evoked memories of a
bloody 1985 rampage by Palestinian extremists at Rome and
Vienna airports near El Al counters.
Israel's state-owned El Al Director General Amos Shapira
told Reuters that there were "three casualties, one of them
unfortunately died."
According to Shapira, there have been no cancellations and
other than this flight and its connecting flight from Toronto,
there have been no hold-ups in the schedule.
"Organizations, primarily Islamic extremist organizations,
are planning to hit Israeli targets outside (Israel). And an
airport is a preferred target," Israel's Transport Minister
Ephraim Sneh said in Jerusalem in reaction to early reports of
the incident. "We believe we are talking about a terrorist
attack."
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
