LAX shooting: TSA officer died within 2 to 5 minutes of being shot, coroner says

The TSA officer who was killed during a shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport died within two to five minutes of being shot multiple times, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was killed after a gunman opened fire around 9:20 a.m. on Nov. 1 inside Terminal 3 at LAX.  The coroner’s office has ruled his death a homicide.

Two other TSA officers and a schoolteacher were also wounded in the attack.

A recent story by the Associated Press, citing unnamed sources, claimed that it took 33 minutes for Hernandez to receive emergency medical treatment because police hadn’t declared the terminal safe for paramedics to enter. The story raised questions about whether a veteran Los Angeles Police Department officer delayed treatment by declaring the TSA officer dead.

RELATED: KPCC coverage of the shooting at LAX

In a statement released Wednesday night, LAPD chief Charlie Beck called the reporting “highly irresponsible.”

“All the facts indicate that any action taken by responding officers or medical personnel would not have saved Officer Hernandez’ life. What concerns me most about this is that it brought needless trauma to the grieving family members of Officer Hernandez. It is unconscionable to inflict unnecessary additional suffering to a family that lost a husband, a father, and a loved one in this tragic incident,” said Beck .

The coroner’s office conducted an autopsy on Nov. 2, one day after the shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport. A full coroner’s report is due by the end of this week.

The LAPD has opened an investigation into whether officers did anything wrong while responding to the shooting. The department is also reviewing how it responded to the active shooter incident.

An after-action working group, too, is evaluating the multi-agency response, according to a joint statement released Saturday from federal and local law enforcement agencies involved.

“Various statements have been made regarding the incident, some of which are untrue and others that merit serious consideration by our respective agencies,” the statement read.

Federal prosecutors have filed one murder charge against accused gunman Paul Ciancia, 23, and an allegation of committing an act of violence at an airport.

Ciancia was released from a hospital Monday after being shot by airport police and is in federal custody. He awaits his first court appearance.