LOS ANGELES (AP) – James Speer had just helped a shell-shocked passenger run away from a gunman at Los Angeles International Airport and thought they were in the clear.
That’s when Speer, an officer with the Transportation Security Administration, watched as a bullet ripped through the calf of another passenger.
“A split second before I could say, ‘Oh my God,’ I felt boom, boom in the back and upper left arm. I was thrown forward from the blast,” said Speer, who ran wounded into a convenience store amid the chaos.
Speer hid behind a pillar as the gunman moved through the terminal, asking people if they were TSA agents and letting them go when they said no.
The gunman, Paul Anthony Ciancia, pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez and 10 other charges stemming from the Nov. 1, 2013, attack motivated by anger over the security measures imposed on airline passengers.