Just minutes before a gunman opened fire in Los Angeles International Airport last fall, killing a TSA security screener and wounding three other people, the two armed security officers assigned to the area left for breaks without informing a dispatcher as required, The Associated Pressreports.
The Los Angeles Airport Police Department officers were outside Terminal 3 when the alleged shooter Paul Ciancia opened fire with an assault rifle in an attack targeting TSA officers, AP reports. During the shooting, the unarmed TSA officers fled the screening area without hitting a panic button or using a landline to call for help. An airline contractor had to call a police dispatcher, who then alerted officers over the radio – a lag of nearly a minute and a half, the article reports.