Officials Still Believe Airport Gunman, An Egyptian Immigrant, Acted Alone
by William Booth and Rene Sanchez, Washington Post
LOS ANGELES - FBI investigators said today that the gunman who went on a rampage inside Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday was an Egyptian immigrant living in Southern California who had no criminal history or known ties to terrorist groups but apparently planned the attack in advance.
The FBI identified the gunman as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, who ran a limousine service from his home in the middle-class suburb of Irvine, Calif., which is about 45 miles from the airport. Hadayet fatally shot two people near a ticket counter for El Al Israel Airlines and wounded three others before he was shot dead by a security guard for the airline. The exchange of gunfire sent scores of travelers ducking for cover and forced thousands more to evacuate.
Israeli officials are calling Hadayet’s attack an act of terrorism, but the FBI again refused to do so today -- even though bureau investigators said they have not ruled out that possibility. The diverging points of view are partly a semantic difference.
The FBI said that it generally defines terrorism less broadly than Israeli officials and does not use the term to describe every violent act an individual commits against a state entity or racial group.
“There is no evidence, no indication at this time, that this is terrorists,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
Richard Garcia, the FBI official leading the investigation, said details of Hadayet’s life and his motive for the attack are still sketchy but investigators believe he acted alone, shot his victims randomly and came to the airport “with the intention of killing people.” Investigators said Hadayet carried no identification and was armed with two handguns and a six-inch hunting knife.
Hadayet’s name has not been on any law enforcement “watch lists” for terrorist activity in the United States or abroad, and investigators have found no evidence to suggest he was part of an organized conspiracy, Garcia said.
“So far we have no indication of any type of prejudice against any particular organization or nationality,” Garcia said.
But a former employee of Hadayet’s, Abdul Zahev, told reporters today that his boss often expressed hatred for Israel and felt the United States was biased against Arabs. “He kept all his anger inside,” said Zahev, who said he worked as a driver for Hadayet for a few weeks. “He couldn’t hold it anymore.”
On Thursday, some witnesses suggested that Hadayet opened fire after a dispute with an airline employee or someone in the ticket line. But today authorities said it appears he began shooting without provocation. “There was nothing exchanged as far as we know,” Garcia said.
Killed in the attack were ticket agent Victoria Hen, 25, and Yaakov Aminov, 46, a jeweler and father of eight who was dropping off a friend.
As service at Los Angeles International returned to normal today under heavier security, police searched Hadayet’s suburban residence, carted off a computer and other records and seized the vehicle that he apparently drove to the airport.
Investigators said they are also examining whether Hadayet may have been despondent because of family troubles. Police in Irvine said today that in recent years officers have been summoned three times to Hadayet’s home, once for an allegation of domestic abuse.
Hadayet lived with his wife and two sons in a middle-class suburb of townhouses and apartments. Investigators said his family returned to Egypt last week.
Neighbors describe Hadayet as a quiet person who often sat in a plastic lawn chair on the porch of his ground-floor apartment, smoking cigarettes.
“It’s a cliché, but it’s true. He kept pretty much to himself,” said Noah Thurman, who lives across the street from Hadayet’s apartment.
On the small cement porch of the apartment, surrounded by a wooden fence, were a child’s basketball hoop, a bicycle, garden hoses and a satellite dish -- all the trappings of an ordinary suburban life.
His neighbors, a portrait of polyglot Southern California, include Asians, Spanish-speaking Mexicans and a family from Israel. Many knew he was a Muslim. His wife covered her hair with a scarf and hats, but she did not wear the traditional veil. The two boys “dressed just like American kids, in surfer clothes,” Thurman said.
Hadayet displayed a bumper sticker on his front door that urged: “Read Koran.”
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hadayet’s upstairs neighbors hung from their balcony -- and directly above the Hadayets’ front door -- large American and Marine Corps flags.
One neighbor said the flags angered Hadayet, who felt they were a personal affront, a challenge to him as a Muslim and an immigrant.
Emma LaMer, another neighbor, said Hadayet removed the Koran sticker after Sept. 11. When she asked him about it, she said, he replied that his wife was worried that some “crazy people” might see it and do the family harm.
Another neighbor, Scott Carstens, told reporters that the Koran sticker suddenly reappeared on the day of the airport shootings.
Hadayet operated his own limousine service, shuttling executives to business meetings and airports and taking tourists to Disneyland.
Hadayet entered the United States through Los Angeles as a visitor in December 1992, and he was granted a green card in March 1993. He gained permanent residency in August 1997 after the same status was given to his wife, said Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington.
“It was derivative,” Bergeron said of Hadayet’s status. “He was married to an individual who had gained permanent residence.”
INS paperwork and one of Hadayet’s California driver’s licenses list his birthday as July 4, 1961. Bergeron declined to provide information on the immigration history of Hadayet’s wife, citing privacy constraints.
In Cairo, Egyptian police interviewed Hadayet’s father at his apartment in Abbasiya, a middle-income area of the city. Hassan Mostafa Mahfouz, an uncle by marriage, told the Associated Press that Hadayet’s wife and sister were taken away for questioning by Egyptian investigators.
Mahfouz, a retired general, said Hadayet worked as a bank accountant before he went to the United States.