TSA Officer Bled for 28 Mins After LAX Shooter Seized

Investigation under way into police, fire response in LAX shooting
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 15, 2013 6:26 AM CST
TSA Officer Bled for 28 Mins After LAX Shooter Seized
This June, 2013 photo released by the Hernandez family shows TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39.   (AP Photo/Courtesy Hernandez Family, file)

Unnamed officials say TSA officer Gerardo Hernandez lay bleeding for 33 minutes at LAX before being taken to an ambulance. For 28 of those minutes, alleged shooter Paul Ciancia was in police custody, though officers hadn't yet declared the area safe to enter. Officers checked on Hernandez, who was just 20 feet from an exit, then moved on while paramedics waited 150 yards away, the AP reports, noting it's not clear if immediate attention might have saved Hernandez's life. Now under review: the conversations took place between police and fire commanders to determine when it was safe enough to enter, and whether paramedics could have gone into the terminal earlier.

While an officer who checked on Hernandez about 5 minutes after he was shot told numerous officers he was dead, the AP reports that it's not known whether that officer had the training needed to make that determination; no first-aid was administered. "I basically think there's a lack of coordination between entities at this airport. That lack of coordination may have led to something that shouldn't have happened," an LAX employee says. "We may be talking about Officer Hernandez as a survivor." The results of the investigation could be months away, the AP adds. Ciancia was on Tuesday upgraded from critical to fair condition at UCLA Medical Center. (More Paul Ciancia stories.)

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