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LAX shooting: Roommate dropped off suspect, documents say

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A roommate of Paul Anthony Ciancia dropped off the shooting suspect at LAX on Friday before, authorities say, he killed a Transportation Security Administration worker during a rampage, documents say.

Authorities revealed new details on Ciancia’s journey to Terminal 3 at the Los Angeles International Airport in an affidavit released Monday.

One of Ciancia’s roommates interviewed by the FBI said Ciancia entered his room unannounced and asked to be driven to LAX. The roommate agreed and drove him in a black Hyundai Accent to what the affidavit called “the Virgin Airlines airport terminal.”

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DOCUMENT: Read the search warrant and affidavit

“The roommate stated that he only learned of the shooting incident upon returning to his apartment,” the affidavit said.

The roommate would later let law enforcement search his vehicle for evidence, where authorities recovered an LG VX9100 cellphone, which the roommate said he thought belonged to Ciancia.

The phone was missing a battery, and the affidavit said authorities recovered an LG battery from the phone near Ciancia when he was apprehended.

The documents also confirmed that from a bag Ciancia was carrying, authorities had obtained a handwritten note that “professed a desire to kill multiple TSA employees and made reference to his concerns about a New World Order.”

Ciancia, 23, has been charged with murder and committing violence at an international airport. The rampage left one TSA employee dead, two other TSA workers injured and several other people wounded by gunfire.

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Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was the first TSA agent to be killed in the line of duty since the agency’s formation in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The family of the suspect said in a statement Monday that “we, like most Americans, are shocked and numbed by the tragic events.” In the interest of getting as many answers as possible about the shooting, the family said they have “fully cooperated with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.”

Ciancia, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic, was wounded by LAX police as he shot his way through Terminal 3 shortly after 9 a.m. Friday, authorities said. Ciancia was shot mutiple times; on Monday, he was heavily sedated and under armed guard at a hospital.

Ciancia moved to Los Angeles about 18 months ago, said Allen J. Cummings, a friend of Ciancia’s father and the police chief in Pennsville Township, N.J., where Ciancia grew up. There had been no indication Ciancia was struggling or that he may have harbored anti-government sentiments, Cummings said.

“We don’t really know what happened out west,” he said. “We don’t know where he got his ideas or where that came from.”

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Twitter: @MattStevensLAT

matt.stevens@latimes.com

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