LAX Incident Raises Debate About Security

A man wanted for threatening police officers and caught last week trying to carry a small arsenal of weapons through a security check at Los Angeles International Airport was freed and allowed to continue on his way by airport police, a decision that has infuriated other law enforcement agencies and raised questions about security at one of the nation’s busiest airports.

“They had him and his weapons, and they let him go,” said one law enforcement official angered by the airport police’s handling of the situation. “The question is why.”

The suspect, Mark Lawrence Kulp, was arrested Monday in Minnesota on a warrant involving his alleged threats against police officers in Polk County. He has not been charged with any crime related to last week’s incident at the airport.

At the Los Angeles Police Department, officials were diplomatic but acknowledged that they were frustrated by the incident and the decision by the independent airport police to let the suspect go. They blamed subtleties in the laws that govern weapons handling at the airport, but they also complained that airport police were too strict in their interpretation of those laws and too quick to let Kulp go on his way.

Although Kulp’s two bags--which were discovered as they passed through the airport’s carry-on screening monitors--contained both weapons and ammunition, airport police said that they could not book Kulp for a felony because the weapons were not loaded.

Although the incident was not made public, sources and police reports indicate that it began about 12:30 p.m. Sept. 2, when police saw the outlines of what they believed to be guns inside two bags. Kulp was stopped by airport police, who searched the bags and found a shotgun and a 9-millimeter semiautomatic assault pistol, according to a copy of an airport police report.

In addition, police found handcuffs, a ski mask, knives and more than 100 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition along with boxes of shotgun shells, according to the property report of items taken from Kulp. Kulp’s bags also included a metal badge with a blue emblem saying “Sheriff” and “Minnesota.”

The bags had been placed on an airport X-ray machine and a security agent saw the weaponry inside, according to the reports. Airport police were notified and Kulp was detained.

Kulp was bound for Minnesota, and when authorities here contacted the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, they learned of an outstanding felony warrant for Kulp, who is suspected of making terrorist threats against police officers there.

At that point, airport police had a heavily armed man in custody who they were told had an outstanding felony warrant. But when Minnesota authorities declined to come to Los Angeles to pick up Kulp, he was allowed to go free. After his weapons were seized, he continued on his way to Minnesota, where he was arrested by police Monday for the outstanding warrant--but not before he called airport police in Los Angeles to request the return of his guns.

Gilbert Sandoval, chief of the airport police, acknowledged that the situation was frustrating but denied that his officers had mishandled the incident and said it was more complicated than it appeared.

According to Sandoval, Kulp’s weapons were not loaded, making the offense of attempting to carry them on the plane an alleged misdemeanor rather than a felony. Sandoval also said police did not see Kulp place the bag containing the weapons on the X-ray belt, meaning that they could not independently testify to each element of the weapons possession offense.

Even so, Kulp signed a police receipt for the property before leaving the airport, according to police documents.

Indeed, rather than deny that the guns were his, Kulp told authorities that he had been directed to the gate by a Northwest Airlines ticket agent telling him it was all right to take the bags with him so long as the guns were not loaded. Northwest agents told authorities, however, that they require unloaded guns to be checked into baggage, not carried on by passengers.

Still, the chief insisted that neither Kulp’s possession of the guns nor his statements would be enough to justify holding him for trying to take them on the plane.

Sandoval added that the laws limiting airport police tied his officers’ hands. For instance, the airport police chief said he did not believe it was illegal to carry a shotgun or automatic pistol onto a plane, so long as the weapon was not loaded.

“I don’t know that it’s illegal,” Sandoval said. “You’re just not going to be allowed to do it,” he added, explaining that he believed the prohibition against taking a weapon on a plane was Federal Aviation Administration policy, not federal law.

Indeed, federal law specifies that a person bringing a “loaded firearm” onto an airplane can be fined and imprisoned up to a year, but it does not specifically bar possession of an unloaded firearm. What complicates Kulp’s case, however, is that he allegedly was carrying not just guns but ammunition as well.

Had he not been detected by security, then, Kulp would have had both guns and bullets at arm’s reach once he had boarded the plane.

The final wrinkle in Kulp’s case involved his status in Minnesota.

According to Sgt. Vernon Rasmussen of the East Grand Forks Police Department in Minnesota, Kulp has been wanted in connection with a March incident in which he threatened police officers. Rasmussen said he could not provide details of that incident, but acknowledged that Minnesota authorities were notified of Kulp’s detention at the airport.

“The distance and cost led them to decide not to get him,” Rasmussen said. Minnesota’s policy, officials said, is to extradite only suspects who are caught within two states of Minnesota.

Instead, Minnesota officials waited until Monday, once they had received Kulp’s address from Los Angeles officials, who had received it from Kulp himself, because he wanted his guns sent to him. Kulp still does not face any charges for his actions at the airport, although they could be filed once prosecutors here have reviewed documents in the case.

Sandoval said the case was frustrating for his officers, who, he said, tried their best to hold the suspect.