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 It would be 33 minutes before Transportation Security
Administration Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was about 20 feet from
an exit, would be wheeled out to an ambulance by police, said the
officials, who were briefed on the investigation and spoke on
condition of anonymity because the probe was still ongoing into the
Nov. 1 shooting.
For all but five of those minutes, there was no threat from the
suspected gunman — he had been shot and was in custody, they said.
While it's not known when Hernandez died or if immediate medical
attention could have saved his life, officials are examining what
conversations took place between police and fire commanders to
determine when it was safe enough to enter and whether paramedics
could have gone into the terminal earlier, one of the officials
said.
Formal conclusions may take months to reach, but what's known raises
the possibility that a lack of coordination between police and fire
officials prevented speedy treatment for Hernandez and other
victims.
TSA workers at LAX have been wondering the same thing, said Victor
Payes, who works at the airport and is president of the local union.
"I basically think there's a lack of coordination between entities
at this airport. That lack of coordination may have led to something
that shouldn't have happened," Payes said. "We may be talking about
Officer Hernandez as a survivor."
Representatives for the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles
Fire Department and Los Angeles Airport Police said they couldn't
comment on the ongoing investigation until extensive reports are
finished.
Authorities say that Paul Ciancia entered Terminal 3 with a duffel
bag, pulled out an assault rifle and started shooting. They said he
had a note in his bag that said he wanted to "kill TSA" and that he
wanted to stir fear in them, criticizing their searches as
unconstitutional.
He was shot by airport police officers four times, in the mouth and
leg, before being taken into custody. He remains in fair condition
at a hospital and his doctors will determine when he's fit to appear
in court.
In the chaotic moments after the gunfire began, as travelers dove to
the ground or scrambled for cover in restaurants and stores,
officials worried there could be bombs in the terminal and tried to
determine whether the gunman had any accomplices. In the first 30
minutes, there was also an unfounded report of two suspicious people
on an adjacent parking garage roof, one of the officials said.
Officers from multiple agencies bent down to check on Hernandez
before moving on, officials said.
Police broadcast over their radios that Ciancia was in custody at
9:25 a.m., five minutes after Hernandez was shot in the chest.
That's when a nearly 26-year veteran Los Angeles police officer
checked on Hernandez several times, repeatedly telling officers who
came by from various agencies "he's dead," according to one of the
law enforcement officials.
It's unclear whether the officer was qualified to determine
Hernandez was dead. No officers rendered first aid on scene,
according to surveillance video reviewed by the officials. Finally,
airport police put Hernandez in a wheelchair and ran him to an
ambulance.
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Trauma surgeon David Plurad said Hernandez had no signs of life when
he arrived at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Doctors worked for about
an hour to revive him despite significant blood loss.
"When somebody is shot and they're bleeding to death, lifesaving
skills need to be implemented immediately, in a couple minutes, and
they're very simple, pressure dressings, tourniquets, adequate
bandages to stop the bleeding," said Dr. Lawrence E. Heiskell, an
emergency physician for 27 years and a reserve police officer for 24
years who founded the state and federally approved International
School of Tactical Medicine.
Responding to a situation with a shooter on the loose has changed
since the 1999 Columbine school massacre, when officials huddled
outside to formulate a plan while shooters continued firing inside
and a teacher bled to death without timely treatment. Now police
immediately charge in to stop the shooting as quickly as possible;
officers are trained to step over the wounded and stop the gunman
first, then tend to victims.
During active shooter training last month with the LAX police and
LAPD, Los Angeles city firefighters wearing ballistic vests and
helmets dragged survivors to areas where they could provide
treatment.
Because police are often the first at the scene where there are
injuries, California law requires officers receive first aid and CPR
training in the academy and regular refreshers afterward.
A recent audit by Los Angeles Police Commission Inspector General
Alex Bustamante found that the LAPD had a zero percent compliance
rate. Only 250-sworn officers in the Metropolitan Division out of
the department's more than 9,900 sworn officers received the
refresher training, it states. Airport police have the training.
On day-to-day crime scenes, firefighters wait down the street until
police clear the scene, usually in minutes, and allow them in, Los
Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Larry Collins, who's a member of
a Los Angeles interagency working group creating best practices for
mass casualty incidents.
"When we have an active shooter, we can't hold back a block away,
we've got to go in" because clearing the scene could take hours.
[Associated
Press; TAMI ABDOLLAH, Associated Press]
Associated Press writer Justin Pritchard contributed to this report.
Tami Abdollah can be reached at
http://twitter.com/latams.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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