LAX shooter's plea agreement reveals he did not consider himself a terrorist, but a 'patriot'

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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)

By Matt Hamilton

Sept. 1, 2016 9:35 PM PT

Paul Ciancia, the gunman whose 2013 rampage at Los Angeles International Airport left a Transportation Security Administration officer dead and three others injured, has agreed to plead guilty to all pending federal charges, according to court papers filed Thursday.

Ciancia, now 26, will formally enter the guilty plea to 11 felony counts related to his Nov. 1, 2013, attack in the airport’s bustling Terminal 3, including the murder of TSA Officer Gerardo I. Hernandez.

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty, but the murder charge to which Ciancia will plead carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The weapons charges carry another mandatory 60 years in prison, in addition to several years behind bars for other charges.

A federal judge will eventually determine the terms of his punishment.

Marshall McClain, director of the union that represents airport police officers, said he hoped the plea agreement would help Hernandez’s family members heal.

“I’m an advocate for the death penalty. It’s unfortunate that he took a life and still he’s not going to be found guilty and put to death,” McClain said. “If it helps bring some closure to the family, I’m all for it.”

Former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. had made the initial decision to seek the death penalty — a rarely sought-after punishment for federal defendants. To justify capital punishment, prosecutors cited Ciancia’s “substantial planning and premeditation.”

That level of preparation by the New Jersey native was revealed in the plea agreement filed Thursday.

Ciancia, who had been living in Los Angeles for about 18 months before the shooting rampage, had purchased the Smith & Wesson semiautomatic rifle nearly seven months before he stormed into the terminal. To conceal his weapon, he tied two pieces of luggage together and fashioned a case, according to court papers.

On the morning of the attack, he asked a roommate to drive him to the airport for a trip back home to New Jersey, and while en route to LAX, he sent text messages to his siblings, with vague descriptions of his plans.

“I’m so sorry that I have to leave you pre-maturely, but it is for the greater good of humanity. This was the purpose I was brought here,” he told his brother.

To his sister, Ciancia wrote that he had to “stand up to these tyrants.” He asked his sister not to let the media distort his actions.

“There wasn’t a terrorist attack on Nov 1. There was a pissed off patriot trying to water the tree of liberty,” he wrote.

Ciancia’s siblings grew concerned by the text messages and alerted police. Officers paid a visit to his apartment in Sun Valley, but U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) later told reporters that police missed him “by a matter of minutes.”

Inside the terminal, Ciancia removed his gun from a bag about 9:15 a.m. and aimed it at Hernandez, who was near a podium checking passengers’ travel documents before travelers headed to an upper-level checkpoint, according to court papers. Hernandez, shot, fell to the floor and Ciancia proceeded up the stairs toward the TSA’s security checkpoint.

About halfway up, he turned and saw Hernandez’s body move. Ciancia walked down the upward-moving escalator, and at point-blank range, fired more rounds at him. Hernandez was shot 12 times in total, according to court papers.

After returning to the upper level, Ciancia spotted two other TSA officers and opened fire as they fled toward the gate area. Authorities said he continued along a corridor of shops and a third person, a teacher, was also injured. Meanwhile, passengers took cover, and as Ciancia walked he inquired if they worked with the TSA, witnesses told investigators. If they said no, he moved on.

About 9:25 a.m., he was shot and captured by airport police near a circular area of passenger-boarding gates. Authorities recovered a total of 500 rounds of ammunition that Ciancia brought to LAX.

Inside his luggage, investigators recovered a handwritten and signed note that mockingly said it was approved by Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The note blasted the TSA for its “Nazi checkpoints” and the presumption that “every American is a terrorist.” He said his mission would be a success if he killed just one TSA representative during his rampage.

In addition to disrupting travel for nearly 170,000 people, the deadly attack led to security reforms. Officials found the emergency response was hampered by poor communication and a lack of coordination among aviation and law enforcement agencies.

Ciancia, whose defense attorneys did not respond to requests for comment, was shot in the head and leg during a gun battle with airport police. He spent two weeks recovering at a hospital before he was transferred to a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where he remains in custody.

[email protected]

Twitter: @matthjourno

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UPDATES:

9:35: p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional details.

6:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the penalties faced by Ciancia.

This article was originally published at 5:40 p.m.