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Hesham
Mohamed HADAYET
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Los Angeles airport shooting
- Terrorist act?
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders:
July 4,
2002
Date of birth: July
4,
1961
Victims profile: Victoria Hen (ticket agent) and Yakov Aminov
(diamond
importer)
Method of murder:
Shooting
(.45-caliber handgun)
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Status:
Killed during the
attack by an El Al security guard
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet
(died July 4, 2002) was an Egyptian-American who on July 4, 2002, killed
2 people at Los Angeles International Airport.
The two people killed were Israelis at the El Al
ticket counter at the airport, one of whom was identified as a ticket
agent (Victoria Hen). Hadayet was killed during the attack by security
personnel. The other Israeli national killed was Yakov Aminov, diamond
importer.
Bio
Hadayet immigrated to the United States in 1992. He
had a green card which allowed him to work as a limousine driver.
Hadayet was married with at least one child. At the
time of the terrorist act, Hadayet was living in Irvine, California
Official designation as a terrorist act
In September 2002, federal investigators concluded
that Hadayet hoped to influence U.S. government policy in favor of the
Palestinians, and that the incident was a terrorist act.
In April 2003, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
and the Department of Justice confirmed the earlier conclusion that the
incident fit the definition of terrorism.
Los Angeles airport shooting kills 3
CNN.com
July 5, 2002
A gunman opened fire Thursday at Los Angeles
International Airport while standing in line at the ticket counter of
Israel's El Al Airlines, officials said, killing two and wounding four
others before an airline security officer shot him dead.
Authorities identified the gunman as 41-year-old
Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, who came to the United States from Egypt in 1992
and had been living in Irvine, California, for the last two years.
Hadayet was not a U.S. citizen but had a "green card"
that allowed him to work in the U.S., authorities said. The gunman's
identity was obtained through fingerprints and records on file with the
state Department of Motor Vehicles, which had issued Hadayet a license
to drive a limousine, the FBI said.
Hadayet's attack occurred on his birthday. According
to his driver's license, he was born July 4, 1961. Hadayet was married
with at least one child, authorities said.
"He was armed with a .45-caliber handgun which he
used in the shooting, as well as a 9 mm handgun which he had on his
possession," FBI spokesman Ron Iden said. "He also had in his possession
what's described as a 6-inch knife."
Hadayet was also carrying extra ammunition and
magazines for the guns, according to FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin.
In addition, a car possibly connected to the gunman
was found Thursday evening near the terminal where the shooting took
place. An LAPD bomb squad examined the vehicle as a precaution, Iden
said.
Federal, law enforcement and city officials said it
appeared the shooting was an isolated incident, with nothing to suggest
otherwise.
"There is no indication of any terrorism connection
in this matter right now, but again we also can't discount that until we
know more," McLaughlin told reporters.
Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn added: "It appears this
was an isolated incident." A Bush administration source concurred with
that statement, adding that nothing suggested it was anything other than
a criminal act.
Israeli officials view the incident differently.
"Though there is no clear-cut evidence that this
gunman is related to a terror organization, it's the most logical
assumption that when someone opens fire on an El Al counter in an
international airport, most likely this is a terror attack," said
Ephraim Sneh, Israeli transportation minister.
"We have warnings that these terrorist organizations
[will] try to hit Israeli and Jewish targets all over world so we have
no reason to assume that this is something different than a terrorist
attack," Sneh said.
Attacker stabs security officer before being slain
Zvi Vapni, the Israeli deputy consul general, said El
Al's chief security officer, Haim Sapir, tried to stop the gunman.
The gunman stabbed Sapir, and the security chief then
fatally shot the suspect, Vapni said.
Iden gave the FBI's account of the incident:
"Two El Al security guards confronted the subject
along with a private citizen who was in the area and began to subdue him.
The subject was shot and died at the scene during that interaction."
McLaughlin praised the quick action of the three,
saying many more would have been killed without the timely response.
El Al is the Israeli national carrier known for its
strict security measures. In the Tom Bradley International Terminal, its
ticket counter is in one of two banks of counters for a number of
international airlines.
Gov. Gray Davis said he was "saddened and outraged"
by what occurred, but he urged Californians not to let the incident stop
them from celebrating Independence Day.
"Please continue on with your celebrations," he said.
An El Al official in Tel Aviv, Amos Shapira, said the
airline had heightened security recently because of information received
from both U.S. and Israeli authorities. Shapira did not elaborate on the
information, saying only it was "recent."
The White House Office of Homeland Security did not
issue a new security alert for the nation's airports following the
shooting, administration officials said. The office has been in touch
with the FBI, the Department of Transportation, and state and local
authorities, a White House official said.
President Bush was notified about the shooting
sometime during the day, the official said.
Victims were ticket agent, diamond importer
The gunman opened fire around 11:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m.
EDT) inside the Tom Bradley International Terminal, a separate building
from the domestic terminals, officials said.
He shot dead a 20-year-old female El Al ticket agent
-- an Israeli national -- and a 46-year-old man who was a diamond
importer, investigators said. Four others were injured, including a 61-year-old
woman who was shot and wounded, a man who was pistol-whipped by the
gunman, and the El Al security chief who was stabbed in the back,
officials said
The diamond importer was identified by family members
as Yakov Aminov, 46, an Israeli who lives in the Los Angeles area. He
died while undergoing surgery for a single gunshot wound. His family
said he was dropping off friends at the airport when the attack happened.
The family members said Aminov's wife, who is pregnant, fainted when she
heard her husband had died.
Two other men at the airport were taken to hospitals
for "cardiac issues," said LAPD spokesman Alex Baez.
Shapira, the El Al official, said 10 passengers were
at the counter at the time, checking in for a Los Angeles-Tel Aviv
flight. Eighty passengers were already on the plane, which U.S.
officials were holding on the ground until they completed their
investigation, he said.
Baez said police were at "maximum deployment" because
of the potential for terror attacks on the Fourth of July, meaning "every
available officer who was not on vacation" was working.
Los Angeles Police Chief Martin Pomeroy said the high
security profile would continue.
"We are going to have additional police officers very
visible at this facility for the next few days, certainly through the
weekend," Pomeroy said, "and I believe that every incoming passenger and
every arriving passenger on an airplane will see an officer either from
the LAPD or from the L.A. Department of Airport Police as they traverse
this facility. We want people to feel safe and to feel comfortable."
The terminal was shut down immediately after the
incident and everyone inside was evacuated, but at 4:15 p.m. passengers
were allowed back in and operations at Bradley terminal were "almost
back to normal" by Thursday evening, according to airport police chief
Bernard Wilson.
Twenty outbound international flights were delayed by
the shutdown, affecting about 6,000 passengers, Hahn said.
In December 1985 at the El Al airport ticket counter
in Rome, terrorists threw grenades and opened fire with semiautomatic
weapons, killing 17 people and wounding scores more.
The last shooting at a U.S. airport was in May when a
Pensacola, Florida, man opened fire at a ticket counter at the main
airport in New Orleans, killing one person and wounding another.
Authorities said Patrick Gott, a Muslim man who was
charged in the shooting, told them he opened fire because people had
made fun of his turban at a restaurant shortly before he went to the
airport.
LAX Gunman's Wife Blames U.S.
Says Hatred Of Muslims Is Behind Shooter's Death
By Jaime Holguin - CBS News
July 8, 2002
The wife of an Egyptian gunman who shot and killed
two people at Los Angeles International Airport said Hesham Hadayet
called her hours before the shooting. Hala Mohammed Sadeq El-Awadly said
Monday from Cairo, Egypt, that Hadayet gave no hint he was planning any
violent act.
She said she did not believe her husband was
responsible for the shooting and was being blamed because he was Arab
and Muslim.
“He is a victim of injustice,” she said. “In America,
they hate Islam and Arabs after Sept. 11.”
“Hesham called on July 4, it was his birthday. His
voice was very beautiful,” she said. “He asked about the boys, asked me
to take them out a lot and to review their lessons with them in order to
be ready for next year.”
According to the FBI, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41,
went to the ticketing counter of El Al, Israel's national airline, at
Los Angeles International Airport July 4 carrying two handguns and a
hunting knife. He opened fire at midmorning, killing two people and
wounding three others before he was killed by an El Al security guard.
El-Awadly, also 41, said her husband called about
midday Egypt time that day, which would have been early morning in
California. She said it was not unusual for him to call at that time.
El-Awadly said she can't wear black, mourn or cry
because she had not yet told her sons Omar 12, and Adam, 7, any of what
had happened. She said she was thankful that their Arabic was so poor
they could not understand media reports or the conversations of the
adults around them, though the older boy has been asking why his
father's name keeps coming up.
On Sunday in Los Angeles, hundreds of mourners turned
out for the funerals of two Israelis who were gunned down.
Ticket agent Victoria Hen, 25, and Yaakov Aminov, 46,
a diamond importer who had accompanied a friend to the airport, were
killed by Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, who walked up to the El Al counter and
began firing.
Five other bystanders were wounded before an El Al
security guard fatally shot 41-year-old Hadayet, who lived in suburban
Irvine.
The FBI says it has not determined whether Hadayet -
an immigrant who lived in California for a decade - harbored anti-Israeli
feelings. Terrorism has not been ruled out as a motive but authorities
are also considering the theory that Hayadet was despondent over his
personal or business affairs.
Some friends and relatives of the two people who were
killed say they are not wondering about the motive.
"Yaakov Aminov died because he was a Jew, because a
culture of hatred has been fostered," said Rabbi Aaron Tendler, one of
the speakers at Aminov's funeral.
More than 1,000 mourners crowded the Yad Avraham
Synagogue in North Hollywood and spilled into the parking lot for the
Sunday morning funeral service for Aminov.
A service for Victoria Hen later in the day drew
about 500 mourners to a cemetery in a Los Angeles suburb.
Several rabbis and friends eulogized Aminov at the
two-hour service, said Haim Cohen, a member of the predominantly Israeli
congregation.
"He was everything in a human being that can be good
- kindness, helping everybody, smiling at everybody, everybody to his
house. I believe he was an angel," Cohen said. "He was something for all
the community."
Family and friends carried Aminov's casket through
the streets from his nearby home to the synagogue. Under a heavy police
presence, mourners gathered in the parking lot of a strip mall where the
synagogue is located.
As family members cried and recited the traditional
kaddish, or prayer for the dead, a Los Angeles police helicopter passed
overhead.
After the service, pallbearers loaded Aminov's casket
into a waiting hearse bound for LAX and an El Al flight to Israel, where
he is to be buried on Monday.
Family members said they begged Aminov not to go to
the airport on a day when Americans were braced for possible attacks on
the first Independence Day since Sept. 11.
Aminov, who emigrated from Israel to the United
States 14 years ago, was waiting with his friend near the El Al counter
when he was struck by a bullet.
He died shortly after arriving at the hospital. His
wife, Anat, pregnant with their sixth child, fainted when she learned he
had not survived his injuries. Aminov also had two children from a
previous marriage.
Friends described Aminov as a soft-spoken, deeply
religious man, known for his generosity and for helping found the
Orthodox Jewish temple where he was mourned on Sunday.
The service for Hen took on political overtones
because of the presence of protesters and Jewish leaders' demands that
U.S. leaders declare the shootings a terrorist incident.
About 500 mourners, including Los Angeles Mayor James
Hahn, Israeli Consul General Yuval Rotem and El Al officials, packed the
small chapel at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills.
Hen's boyfriend Yaron Cohen, who clutched a white
rose throughout a 30-minute graveside ceremony, had planned to propose
marriage on July 5, said family spokesman Joe Knoller.
As pallbearers carried Hen's casket from the chapel,
protesters held signs reading, "Stop this terrorism now."
At the service, Rotem criticized the Muslim community
for failing to come forward and condemn the killings.
A number of Arab Americans in the Los Angeles area
have, however, publicly condemned the killings as a crime. The Web site
of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee posted a statement
denouncing the attack in the "strongest possible terms."
The Council on American Islamic Relations in Anaheim
is also speaking out.
"We are horrified by what happened," says Sabiha
Khan, spokeswoman for the group. "We pray for the victims and their
families because nobody should ever die like that."
Within the Muslim community, there are fears that the
July 4 shooting could revive anti-Arab discrimination experienced in the
aftermath of Sept. 11.
"We hope that people can make the distinction between
one crazy person and a whole community of six or seven million people in
the United States," said Khan.
Israelis continue to view Thursday's attack as an act
of terrorism although U.S. officials downplayed the rampage as an
isolated incident.
"You have to understand, the whole Jewish community
in Los Angeles is taking this very hard and they are showing it with
their feet," Knoller said.
Hen, who was born in Israel and came with her family
to live in the United States in 1990, began working at the El Al ticket
counter only a month ago. She was shot once in the chest as she sat
behind her desk.
According to The Los Angeles Times, El Al is
responding to the attack by beefing up security at airport terminals
throughout the world.
