Crime & Safety

TSA Agent Shot 12 Times During LAX Shooting Incident

The autopsy report, released Friday, details where bullets hit Hernandez.

A Transportation Security Administration officer who was killed at Los Angeles International Airport was shot 12 times, according to a final autopsy report released Friday.

Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was killed Nov. 1 inside Terminal 3 when a gunman who was allegedly targeting TSA agents pulled a semi-automatic weapon from a duffel bag and began shooting.

Coroner's officials announced Wednesday that Hernandez, who was shot around 9:30 a.m., died within two to five minutes of being shot. The autopsy report notes that he was not officially pronounced dead until 11 a.m. after resuscitation efforts failed at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

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According to the autopsy report, Hernandez suffered a gunshot that went through his right arm and into his body, six shots in the lower back/buttocks area, five shots in the rear hip area. One of the bullets apparently grazed Hernandez's heart, and another grazed his liver.

Forty bullet fragments were recovered during the autopsy.

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The alleged gunman, 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia, was shot four times by police inside the terminal. He was released Monday from Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and taken into federal custody in an undisclosed location. He has already been charged with murder by the U.S. Justice Department.

Hernandez was the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty. He was married with two children.

- City News Service


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