(CNN) — A California husband and father became the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty in the agency’s 12-year history, the lone fatality in a frightful shooting at Los Angeles International Airport.
Gerardo Hernandez would have celebrated his 40th birthday next week.
Instead, he is being mourned as the first slain-on-duty officer at the Transportation Security Administration, a sometimes loathed but always vital agency that protects the country’s airports.
Hernandez was a behavior detection officer, which meant he walked around the airport looking for suspicious behavior, CNN affiliate KTLA reported, citing the union representing TSA workers.
He was working as a travel document checker at the time of the shooting, the union and federal sources said.
Union president J. David Cox Sr. said his group was “sickened” by the shooting and expressed thanks to “all our brave (transportation security officers) who put their lives on the line every day to keep the flying public safe.”
Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, was armed with what police say was an assault rifle when he allegedly opened fire in the airport’s Terminal 3, killing Hernandez and sending dozens of people scattering before he was wounded and captured.
Hernandez was shot in the chest and abdomen, and pronounced dead upon his arrival at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, CNN affiliate KABC reported. He had been with the agency since 2010, the affiliate said.
Two other TSA officers were also shot, one in the leg, authorities said.
“I’m shocked, the guy is a very nice guy,” one of Hernandez’s neighbors in the north Los Angeles community of Porter Ranch, Habib Bonakdar, told CNN affiliate KCAL-KCBS.
Hernandez was married with children, another neighbor, Ken Wong, told the affiliate.
“It’s just tragic,” Wong said. “What a terrible thing. Here’s a man who was trying to serve his country, do his job well and support his family, and this is a senseless thing that happened. It shouldn’t have happened.”
