Los Angeles airport shooting suspect’s family reaches out to victims

PENNSVILLE, N.J. – Relatives of the suspect charged in last week’s Los Angeles airport shooting offered sympathy Monday to the family of the TSA officer who was killed, saying they were “shocked and numbed” by the deadly rampage.

An attorney for the family of Paul Ciancia said his relatives also expressed hope for the recovery of the other victims and regret for the travel disruption caused by the attack on the nation’s third-busiest airport.

Ciancia, a 23-year-old unemployed motorcycle mechanic, is accused of shooting his way past an airport checkpoint with a .223-caliber rifle he pulled from a duffel bag. He was wounded in a shootout with airport police.

Prosecutors have charged him with murder of a federal officer in the death of TSA screener Gerardo I. Hernandez and committing violence at an international airport.

Ciancia, who was shot four times before being subdued, remained in critical condition. He has not been scheduled to appear in court. Any appearance will depend on when his doctors say he’s ready, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

The TSA said the other two officers wounded in the attack – James Speer, 54, and Tony Grigsby, 36 – have been released from the hospital.

Grigsby read a statement outside his South Los Angeles home Monday, saying he was trying to help an elderly man get to safety when he was shot twice in the right foot. He fought back tears as he called Hernandez a wonderful person who will be missed.

“Only now it has hit me that I will never see him again,” Grigsby said.