Injured, theres been video of him escorted into an ambulance and perhaps one or two other people, we dont know whether they are tsa employees or other passengers in the crowded area, injured as well. In a half hour theres going to be a News Conference from lapd chief charlie beck and mayor Eric Garcetti and theyll have the answers to some questions still unknown at this point. Was this individual acting alone . Is that confirmed that he acted alone . We have a report about a half hour ago that the incident according to federal officials was described as being over. But there still is a pursuit and investigation throughout this crowded airport to see whether or not there was anybody working in concert with this alleged suspect. The gunman in custody. What eyewitnesses saying they saw and heard. Eight and ten shots they thought they heard there . Thats the number of shots that have come from a couple of eyewitnesses ear witnesses because very few people claim to have seen the alleged suspect. One person described the suspect as someone, male in his early 20s with short blonde hair wearing sweat pants or other casual clothing. No other description beyond that. The suspect himself alleged suspect himself has been wounded and now in custody and presumably with medical treatment as well. We will probably know more about this alleged suspect when theres a press conference. What youre looking at is terminal three at lax. This is where Virgin American Spirit Airlines, jetblue, front tear, allegiant and thats about it this is where those particular airlines are based for lack of a better description. Among other things that were following is the fact theres a ground traffic cutoff around the airport. Miguel almaguer is attempting to get as close as possible to the airport. You cannot simply drive up with this ongoing situation. Miguel, are you there . Reporter it sounds like they are trying to shut down portions of the 405 and 110 in the area have the major highways that run through the region. The 405 specifically a major thoroughfare for commuters in los angeles. That might be happening now or in the process of happening. Were about i would say about a half mile away from where this incident took place trying to get to the airport entrance. It is completely gridlocked here. There are hundreds of cars in every lane. We have about seven helicopters and several News Agencies as well as police and fire officials hovering up overhead. This area is a mess. It is gridlock. Folks are being told to stay away. As we approached the airport on the thoroughfares that go on towards the airport property, we can see buses and cars are literally at a standstill, there are people on the roadways where we are now outside of their cars trying to make their way towards the airport. Some folks walking with luggage in hand. A majority of the flights have been severely impacted. Flights coming into the airport, weve seen a couple of planes land off the runway here a few hundred feet from where we are at in our vehicle. We know some flights are landing but it is it not appear any flights are taking off this afternoon. It is a mess out here at lax, tamron. This is on top of the fact, miguel, we were already experiencing, the midwest moving east, delays of up to three hours due to the weather that weve seen across the country this last two days. Now you have this incident as well. Let me go back to mike taibi. More to exactly where this incident happened as far as what witnesses and weve been able to at this point confirm. Where in the airport did this encounter take place . I think when people start thinking about where it happened, they should think of their own experiences. Once youve gotten your boarding pass, you follow the signs to all gates. You get to a security checkpoint, sometimes several in each terminal. You go to the security checkpoint and allowed up the stairs. Once youve shown you have a boarding pass. Then the preliminary check is the one for the i. D. To make certain that information matches whats on the boarding pass. That tsa personnel has a sole job of making certain the boarding pass is a match for the official government i. D. You get in the line that snakes around to the conveyor belts and take your shoes off, et cetera, et cetera. He didnt get that far. He evenly got to the point where i. D. S are checked against boarding passes. At that point, the exchange of gunfire occurred. It lasted as you pointed out eight or ten shots, not a Huge Exchange of gunfire. Its not known who was shooting. In addition to the alleged shooter was it an air marshall or lapd, los angeles Airport Security officer, not certain at this point but whats known is it lasted a few seconds and tragic results for at least one tsa employee. You may be familiar more than i am with the terminal, im thinking of airports i traveled to recently where you check the documents, usually the line you refer to that snakes around where we take off shoes is not very far away. If theres an exchange of gunfire or of shots fired, people who are taking their jackets off, getting ready to go through the actual security process could not have been very far away. No, it must have been terrifying and a couple of eyewitnesses described by the local affiliate here say they hit the ground right away and people were panicking at that point. Its close quarters with scores of people, if not hundreds in the very crowded terminal, in this crowded airport on a friday morning. On a friday morning with delays because of the weather situation on the east coast and midwest. People were jammed into that terminal at that point. Well get clear we have a witness on the phone with us, mike, joining me now by phone is nick pugh. What did you see . Caller i was standing on the upper mez nine and the guy started to shoot down below us. I escaped out an emergency exit. He probably shot, five, ten shots, sounded like an Assault Rifle or shotgun. For people who dont know, youre on the mezzanine level. How far were you from the gunman . Probably 15 feet away from him. Can you tell me more about his demeanor or once you heard the shots did you look down and see the direction and where it could be coming from . I didnt actually see the guy. We were on the upstairs mezzanine, where you first come in off the ground floor. Where you might check in at first, where you show your i. D. And show your show your boarding pass, thats where i was thats where they stopped him or he started shooting or whatever. I was up above and he just started i mean the gunshots it was 15 feet away but down on a lower level at the base of the escalator which we just walked up. I imagine there was no doubt or was there doubt this was shooting . Youre going in and about to travel. This is a thing i would hope furthest thing from your mind there and hear the gunshots. Caller there was no doubt it was shooting and it sounded like a pretty high caliber weapon. So i mean, it was loud bangs. Yeah, there was no doubt it was shooting. Did you see police or tsa agents rushing down to try to apprehend this person or toward where the gunshots were coming from . Caller you know, nobody ran toward it. Everybody ran away from it. We were in a big line of people. There was probably 150 people waiting in line to go through security and we were all standing there. And i basically was everyone ran toward security and i was behind where you could really get and i thought, i went out an emergency exit on the tarmac right away and deemed that was the best choice. As you were running and fleeing, could you hear the gunshots in the background . You know, i didnt hear anything because i was outside. And no, i didnt, i just that was it. I ran and then the police came rushing toward me and put me down on the ground and handcuffed me, thinking i was the suspect or making sure i wasnt and whatever. I laid on the tarmac for ten minutes. As you were running out, through that emergency exit, you were apprehended . Yes, i was. What did Authorities Say to you at the time . They just told me they just said get down on the ground, put your hands behind your back. Dont do anything. You know, guns aim add the me. I wasnt going to say much. How quickly were you able to clear this up with them . I would say ten minutes. They had to go back towards the terminal and few other people came out the same place i did. Then from there ip guess they realized none of us was the suspect. Where are you now . Im in another terminal, i dont know which one, two u. S. Airways. Are you with a number of other people . Is this where you were all directed to go while this Investigation Continues . Yeah, everyone was i came up off the tarmac into another terminal where no one had been where i guess no one in that terminal had even know what was going on when i first came in. Then from there, they just evacuated that terminal and walked us over to the other one so you actually when you were running from the chaos or the gunshot, you ended up through the emergency exit that put you on the tarmac . Yes, yes, immediately which probably explains why authorities instantly saw you as someone they needed to at least talk to and question that you are a passenger we now know. They did not seeing you on the tarmac there. Yeah, it was totally out of place, me being on the tarmac, but i figured it would be better to be there, if somebody than where the gunshots are coming from. Talk to me again. You said you were around 150 people. I cannot imagine the chaos that youre hearing multiple gunshots and people trying to figure out how to get out of that area. Yeah, i mean, everyone pretty much just dropped to the ground and started crawling along, trying to keep as low as possible to the ground. What are you being told right now . What are authorities telling you right now as far as how long youll be in that area . What direction are you being given . They just moved us from one terminal to the other. Theres no indication if well be here for a long time or i know the airport is closed. Yes, and you did not actually see the person firing the shots, but you certainly were close enough and it was clear enough that that was what was happening . I did not see the shooter but i was very close to where he was shooting. I happened to be on a different level above where he was standing. Thank you very much. Ill let you get yourself together and figure out the next move. What we just heard from this eyewitness, at least as you pointed out the ear witness, he did not see the gunman but heard shots is really what weve been hearing throughout this morning. This all starting around the first gunshots 9 20 local time. It is now 11 12 local time, were awaiting an update from the mayor as well as the police commissioner. Thats correct. A couple of things to tell you right now. Anyone following this story wants to know if this is the only suspect. We got information from the lapd spokesman telling us that the suspect is now in custody, and that, ill quote this directly, he is the only suspect in the incident according to the lapd spokes person. They said while he may be the only suspect in this incident, the bomb squad is now continuing its search and its canvas not just of the terminal but con tig uous terminals as well. Ive been handed photograph, one is the area by the gate which show aids long rifle. I dont know thats the alleged rifle the suspect had but not the type of thing ordinarily that lapd personnel would have with them. They also said it was airplane police, lax Airport Police, a separate squad who engaged the gunman in gunfire. That may answer the question we had, who was doing the shooting on the other side . It may well be according to the lapd spoekdsman, it was airport cops who neutralized him and have him in custody. We just got a statement in from the tsa union leader reacting to the news that a tsa employee was killed in this incident. It siz in part, were sickened by reports of todays shooting at the Los Angeles International airport. Our sincerest thoughts and prayers to the transportation and security Information Officers killed in this heinous attack. Pete williams is standing by. The tsa agents who are the first line, if you will, these are people who check our documents and i. D. , they are not armed agents or tsa employees, right . You know, i dont know what the practice was at la airport. I cant say for certain. I dont believe they are. It happened at that checkpoint where there are three places where you encounter the security at the airport. The first is where you just sort of show someone whos oftentimes a government contractor, may not be a tsa official. You show them that you have in fact a boarding pass or ticket and allowed to pass along into the secure area. Then you encounter the first tsa who looks at your documentation, drivers license or passport or whatever i. D. You have and checks it against your boarding pass or ticket. Were told thats where this happened that the gunman shot and killed one tsa employee there, wounded at least one other tsa employee, and some other person. We dont know whether that third person who was wounded was a passenger or potentially another tsa employee. Then were told the gunman was shot, weve been told by lapd that the gunman is in custody. Weve had conflicting information whether the gunman survived the shots. Were still trying to get the definitive information on that and on who the gunman is, but as to whether there was a second gunman involved, that is certainly being investigated, but at this point weve had no information that there was more than one person involved here. We also have with us retired hostage negotiator, Jim Cavanaugh, as pointed out in the statement by the tsa union leader, theres 45,000 Transportation Security Administration officers, tsa officers, who screen all commercial airlines and passengers and baggage and cargo as well. I asked pete whether the tsa agents who are the first that we encounter, when youre boarding a plane showing documents and it appears this is where it happened, if they are armed and obviously, different airports have a different system. But what is the usual protocol as well as those people and if they are armed or not in the. Normally they are not armed but do wear a police uniform. They wear a light blue shot and youll see that in the video and they have a badge. They appear as Law Enforcement and they are Law Enforcement really but not armed. The reason that is, most of the Airport Police departments in this case, the lax Airport Police, los angeles Airport Police department, and as pete said, thats who shot the gunman. So they are usually the ones who are nearby at the checkpoints and standing back and blue uniform, armed and you know, they dont thats the way they like it. They know who their people are. Generally speaking the tsa agents are not armed and the Airport Police officers are armed and thats that appears what happened here. Were still obviously waiting to get confirmation and more details here, but jim, some of the reports as you well know indicate that this person had a rifle and one would wonder if this was a weapon that was hidden in a bag . Did he pull it out before pull that weapon out of the bag before getting there or did somehow people believe he was a Law Enforcement personnel . It is not a hand gun you could conceal under a jacket. It is a great point. I mean, just like the navy yard, when we saw the shooter come in, he had the sawed off shout gun in his bag. In the airport theres so many people around and so many cameras, if you saw somebody walking as this man described in a White T Shirt carrying a long gun, people would quickly point him out and Security Officers would pick him up. It is would be interesting to see when he first exhibited the weapon. He may have pulled it out in the security line as he was approaching a tsa agent. He may not have had it in plain view long. Some of the witnesses are saying it was a long rifle. If the eyewitness accounts are correct, its difficult for anyone to say at this point, until we hear from police, but also, we know the level of security. Were not very far from the thanksgiving holiday. This is a friday morning, a lot of people traveling, a lot of folks honestly stuck out west trying to get east because of the weather delays. Im curious as far as cameras and monitoring that we do not see, the tsa agents are visible and police are visible. But what about those who are keeping watch through surveillance cameras. What kind of presence exists in these major airports . . Bigger airports theres more than the smaller airports, of course. And the security is layered. But you also get better security when you have more police or security agents like tsa. So if you can deploy more, even plain clothes out in front of the terminal, a lot of times people can be picked up. The customs and boarder protection, used to be custom service, were masters at this, absolute masters at being able to pick out people by watching them, whether they were up to nef fair yus activity. It has to be deployed a little further out. Jim, ill get you to hang on. Let me bring in california congresswoman maxine waters. Congresswoman, what have you been told about the situation . Do they believe they have the one person responsible in custody . Yes, i have been monitoring as closely as i possibly can. And probably you have about the same information that i have. I do understand that the shooter is in custody, but i dont know whether or not that person has been killed or not, there are differing reports about whether or not the person who apprehended as the shooter has been killed. Were awaiting an update from the mayor as well as the police chief. It may start in the next nine or ten minutes or so. As you heard here, at least eye witness accounts, this one individual was able to get close enough to this tsa employee to kill him. Witnesses heard the gunshots. What are your concerns right now as we await to get more information that this person was able to enter the airport and dont know if the weapon is concealed but describing it as a long rifle. Absolutely right, it is just not bleselievable that he could have walked in with a rifle that was not in some way hidden or concealed. The tsa officers are first line of officers that you encounter, you know, after you get a ticket, go to the first part where you have to show i. D. Or you go to the second part whe