An unemployed motorcycle mechanic who gunned down airport screening officers at Los Angeles International Airport in a 2013 attack that sent passengers running for their lives pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and 10 other charges.
Paul Ciancia agreed last week to plead guilty to all 11 charges in the rampage that killed one officer and wounded two others and a teacher who was headed for a flight.
Ciancia, 26, was spared the death penalty by entering the plea but faces a mandatory life term in prison.
The evidence against Ciancia was overwhelming, and included a note he wrote saying he was enraged with the airport security checks that U.S. passengers face.
Security cameras tracked Ciancia’s movements as he stalked his victims with a semi-automatic rifle in Terminal 3 for 10 minutes during the Nov. 1, 2013 attack.
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Los Angeles Airport Police Department Officer Fritz Corros stands in silence as an honor guard at the makeshift memorial to fallen TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Transportation Security Administration employees observe a moment of silence on Friday at 9:20 a.m., the same time of last Friday’s shooting that left TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez dead. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Airport police Officer Fritz Corros stands in silence as an honor guard at the makeshift memorial to fallen TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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TSA employees embrace after observing a moment of silence at LAX. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Airport workers embrace in Terminal 3 after a memorial service for a slain TSA officer. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A shoulder patch is among the items at the makeshift memorial for slain TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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LAX Airport Police officer Tom Dye passes the U.S. Honor Flag to TSA honor guard Brandy Richards as it arrives at LAX in memory of TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez on Wednesday. The Honor Flag will be used at Hernandez’s upcoming funeral services. (Brad Graverson / Getty Images)
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Honor guards escort a U.S. National Honor Flag from an airline jet in a ceremony to memorialize TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was fatally shot at LAX. (David McNew / Getty Images)
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The U.S. Honor Flag is carried during a procession through Terminal 4 at LAX in memory of TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez. (Brad Graverson / Getty Images)
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A motorcade, consisting of members of the L.A. Police Department, L.A. Fire Department, and honor guards with the Transportation Security Administration, carries a U.S. National Honor Flag in memory of TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A TSA officer wipes her eyes as an honor guard escorts a U.S. National Honor Flag in a ceremony to memorialize TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was fatally shot at LAX. (David McNew / Getty Images)
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TSA agents Blandina Beltran,left, and Wessane Legesse, right, comfort each other at a candlelight vigil for their co-worker slain TSA agent Gerardo I. Hernandez at Dockweiler State Beach on November 4, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Beltran and Legesse both work in Terminal 3 at LAX. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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TSA shooting victim Tony Grigsby is consoled by his mother, Faye Maye, during a news conference Monday n Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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TSA shooting victim Tony Grigsby, escorted by his mother, Faye Maye, left, and grandmother Juanita Davis, walks slowly away from the media after a press conference Monday in Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Passengers continue through the screening area in LAX Terminal Three on Monday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Transportation Security Administration agents help travelers with baggage to check for screening at LAX Terminal Two on Monday morning after a deadly shooting Friday at Terminal Three caused mass delays and cancellations. A Transportation Security Administration agent was killed and several other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in the Los Angeles International Airport terminal Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Transportation Security Administration agents embrace in front of Terminal 3 at LAX on Monday. Three days after a fellow agent was killed and several others wounded. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Transportation Security Administration agents help travelers with their luggage. Suspect Paul Anthony Ciancia’s family family notified Los Angeles police Friday morning after receiving text messages from the 23-year-old that made them concerned about his well-being. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Passengers and Transportation Security Administration walk past a memorial of flowers at LAX on Monday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Flowers for slain TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez at LAX Terminal 3. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Airport Police Officer Dan Keehne and his canine partner keep an eye on passengers in Terminal 3. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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TSA officers are in very somber mood at the Terminal 3 check-in area. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Ana Hernandez, widow of slain TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez, makes a statement Saturday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Airport police Officer Dan Keehne patrols Terminal 3 with his canine partner. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Travelers wait to check in as construction workers take down tarp that prevented people from looking at the crime scene. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles airport staff members attend to a passenger who was trying get in through a closed entrance at Terminal 3. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Airport police patrol with dogs in Terminal 3 a day after the shooting. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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TSA agents spend a quiet moment on a bridge that leads to Terminal 3. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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A TSA agent is absorbed in thought as he walks through Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. (Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)
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Law enforcement including the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department and LAX Airport Police gather in Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. A Transportation Security Administration agent was killed and several other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the airport. The attack caused widespread chaos, delaying flights and stranding thousands of passengers. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
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Liza Espiritu, right, rests on her luggage while joining hundreds of passengers who wait to get permission to try to make their flights. Espiritu and her husbvand, Eric, standing behind her, were traveling from Manila with a stop at LAX en route to Phoenix. (Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)
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After hours of waiting, passengers are allowed to enter LAX. They were held at the entrance to the arrival section of LAX. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Travelers make their toward LAX on one of the main roads into the airport. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Joseph Heyward, 87, right, and his wife get help with their luggage and a ride from Los Angeles firefighters. (Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)
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Passengers wait outside Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 1, 2013, after a Transportation Security Administration agent was shot and killed and three other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck talks with other responders at Los Angeles International Airport. (Reed Saxon / Associated Press)
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The attack at LAX caused widespread chaos at the airport, with flights delayed and thousand of passengers left stranded on the streets in and around the airport. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Security presence outside Terminal 2 at LAX after a Transportation Security Administration agent was shot and several other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3 Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Passengers wait outside Terminal 1 at LAX. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Passengers and airline personnel exit LAX after a Transportation Security Administration agent was shot and killed. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Passengers wait for Terminal 1 to reopen after a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)
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A passenger trundles his bag behind him outside LAX, where thousands of people were evacuated after a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3. (Michael Nelson / EPA)
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A police offer stretches crime scene tape across the road leading to Terminal 3 after Friday morning’s shooting. (Michael Nelson / EPA)
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Police stand guard outside Terminal 2 at Los Angeles International Airport. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)
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Passengers evacuated from LAX terminals walk with their luggage after a gunman opened fire inside Terminal 3. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
He first opened fire on officer Gerardo Hernandez at a document screening podium, wounding the 39-year-old married father of two children.
As Ciancia went up an escalator to the main security screening area, he saw Hernandez move and returned to fire several more shots at point-blank range, killing Hernandez.
He then went up the escalator again, through the main screening area and into a secure part of the airport and reloaded before opening fire — shooting officers Tony Grigsby in the ankle and James Speer in the shoulder as they tried to run away. A teacher at the airport for a flight, Brian Ludmer, was hit in the calf.
Police shot and wounded Ciancia in the terminal’s food court, hitting him four times. He was armed with a Smith & Wesson semi-automatic rifle he had purchased seven months earlier.
Officers found a handwritten note and ammunition in a duffel bag Ciancia had dropped.
Ciancia, who was living in the Los Angeles area after growing up in Pennsville, New Jersey, said in the note that he wanted to kill at least one TSA officer but hoped to kill more.
“If you want to play that game where you pretend that every American is a terrorist, you’re going to learn what a self-fulfilling prophecy is,” his note said, according to court documents.
The note added, “I want to instill fear in your traitorous minds. I want it to always be in the back of your head just how easy it is to take a weapon to the beginning of your Nazi checkpoints.”
Ciancia signed the note with his name, adding beneath it, “Pissed-off Patriot.”
Hernandez’ wife, Ana Machuca, told The Associated Press last week that she had wanted a death sentence forCiancia but understood how lengthy that legal process would have been and now supports his lifetime prison sentence.
No sentence, she said, will bring peace or closure to her family.
“My husband died and my children lost their father,” she said. “There isn’t anything anyone can do for us.”
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