On October 1, 2017 a shooter opened fire onto a country music concert crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. At the time this collection was created, 58 people lost their lives in this incident, making this event the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history. ||||| NBC News Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, is accused of a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport. 
 
 The alleged shooter who went on a rampage Friday at Los Angeles International Airport approached a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, pulled a .223-caliber M&P-15 assault rifle from his bag and shot multiple times "at point-blank range" at a uniformed TSA officer, according to a criminal complaint filed Saturday. 
 
 Read the criminal complaint filed against Paul Anthony Ciancia (.pdf) 
 
 The gunman, whom authorities identified as Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, of Los Angeles, then "began to walk up an escalator, looked back at the wounded officer, who in video appeared to move, and returned to shoot the wounded officer again," the affidavit read. 
 
 That TSA agent, Gerardo I. Hernandez, 39, was fatally wounded. Hernandez is the first TSA agent to die in the line of duty in the agency's 12-year history. 
 
 According to the criminal complaint, the shooter then fired at at least two other uniformed TSA agents and one civilian, injuring all three. Ciancia was pursued by law enforcement and shot in the chest by a sergeant and an LAX police officer. Ciancia remains hospitalized in critical condition. 
 
 He was charged Saturday with two felony offenses -- murder of a federal officer and commission of violence in an international airport. These charges could qualify him for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said, adding that the U.S. attorney general would decide whether to seek the death sentence. 
 
 Courtesy Hernandez Family / Courtesy Hernandez Family / AP Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez is seen in a family photo. 
 
 Law enforcement officials said Ciancia had a handwritten letter on him that stated the 23-year-old had "made the conscious decision to try to kill" several TSA employees to "instill fear in your traitorous minds." Other reports indicated the suspect was also carrying a “manifesto” associated with the antigovernment “patriot” movement. 
 
 Given that loaded weapons are forbidden in airports -- with the exception of law enforcement agents with a special reason to be armed -- Ciancia was carrying the rifle illegally. And transporting or importing most semiautomatic rifles is against the law in California. 
 
 Ciancia also had five magazines of ammunition with him, the affidavit showed. 
 
 Related: ||||| The 23-year-old gunman charged in a deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport told authorities at the scene that he acted alone and had been dropped off at the airport by a friend, a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press exclusively Sunday. 
 
 From left to right, FBI Special Agent in Charge David L. Bowdich, United States Attorney Andre Birotte Jr., and Los Angeles Police Department Commander Andrew Smith in press conference to provide an update... (Associated Press) 
 
 United States Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. speaks in press conference to provide an update on the investigation of the shooting incident at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), on Saturday Nov. 2, 2013... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lighted pylons at the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport, which normally flash in a multicolored sequence, shine a steady blue Saturday evening, Nov. 2, 2013, in honor of... (Associated Press) 
 
 Transportation Security Administration employees classify the luggage to return to passengers at Los Angeles International Airport's Terminal 3 on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013. A gunman armed with a semi-automatic... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo shows the first page of the complaint filed by the United States Attorney's office in Los Angeles against Paul Anthony Ciancia on Nov. 2, 2013. Ciancia is charged with two counts - violations... (Associated Press) 
 
 This photo provided by the FBI shows Paul Ciancia, 23. Accused of opening fire inside the Los Angeles airport, Ciancia was determined to lash out at the Transportation Security Administration, saying... (Associated Press) 
 
 John S. Pistole, left, Administrator of Transportation Security Administration and Ana Hernandez, center, wife of TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez, victim at LAX shooting, before a press conference in Porter... (Associated Press) 
 
 ALTERNATE HORIZONTAL CROP - This June, 2013 photo released by the Hernandez family Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, shows Transportation Security Administration officer Gerardo Hernandez. Hernandez, 39, was shot... (Associated Press) 
 
 Authorities do not believe the friend knew that Paul Ciancia, the man charged in the attack, planned to open fire inside LAX's Terminal 3 just moments later, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and wounding four others, including two more TSA workers, said the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation and requested anonymity. 
 
 Ciancia was dropped off in a black Hyundai and was not a ticketed passenger. He was able to respond to investigators' questions at the scene Friday, the source said. 
 
 Ciancia, an unemployed motorcycle mechanic who grew up in the small, working-class town of Pennsville, New Jersey, was shot four times and was under a 24-hour armed guard at the hospital, where he remained heavily sedated, the law enforcement official told The Associated Press. 
 
 Federal prosecutors charged Ciancia on Saturday with murder of a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport. The charges could qualify him for the death penalty. 
 
 In court documents and interviews, authorities spelled out a chilling chain of events, saying Ciancia walked into the airport, pulled a .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag and fired repeatedly at point-blank range at 39-year-old TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez, killing him. 
 
 He then fired on at least two other uniformed TSA employees and an airline passenger, who all were wounded, before airport police shot him as panicked passengers cowered in stores and restaurants, authorities said. 
 
 It wasn't clear why Ciancia targeted TSA officers, but what he left behind made it clear he intended to kill any of them that crossed his path, FBI Agent in Charge David L. Bowdich said. 
 
 The shooter's duffel bag contained a handwritten letter signed by Ciancia stating he'd "made the conscious decision to try to kill" multiple TSA employees and that he wanted to "instill fear in their traitorous minds," Bowdich said. 
 
 Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday that he had seen the note and said that what Ciancia "wanted to talk about was how easy it is to bring a gun into an airport and do something just like he did." 
 
 The attack underscores how difficult it is to protect travelers at a massive airport such as LAX, where the terminals are open and easily accessible to thousands of people who arrive via a broad ring road that fronts the facility and is designed to move people along quickly. 
 
 "It's very difficult to stop these types of attacks," McCaul said. "And you know, it's like a shopping mall outside the perimeter, it's almost like an open shopping mall. So it's very difficult to protect." 
 
 The FBI has served a search warrant on a Sun Valley residence where Ciancia lived, Ari Dekofsky, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said Sunday. Agents are still interviewing people, she said. 
 
 Hernandez, a three-year veteran of the TSA, moved to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 15, married his sweetheart, Ana, on Valentine's Day in 1998 and had two children. 
 
 The other two TSA officers wounded in the attack have been released from the hospital. 
 
 Brian Ludmer, a Calabasas High School teacher, remained in fair condition at Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the leg. 
 
 His family declined to comment and asked for privacy, hospital officials said. 
 
 The FBI was still looking into Ciancia's past, but investigators said they had not found evidence of previous crimes or any run-ins with the TSA. They said he had never applied for a job with the agency. 
 
 ____ 
 
 Associated Press writers Alicia Chang and Gillian Flaccus in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ||||| The gunman ignored the travelers shuffling in and out of Los Angeles International Airport. He ignored the airline employees printing tickets and checking bags. 
 
 Instead, he scanned Terminal 3 for an airport security official, authorities said. 
 
 Only then did he open fire. 
 
 Gerardo Hernandez, 39, was shot at point-blank range and crumpled to the floor, authorities said. The gunman rode up an escalator, turned around and noticed the bleeding man squirming. 
 
 He went back and fired again, authorities said, killing Hernandez. 
 
 Authorities filed a murder charge Saturday against the man they allege opened fire, Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, and offered chilling new details that suggested the rampage was explicitly aimed at Transportation Security Administration agents. 
 
 The gunman was carrying a signed, handwritten note in his duffel bag that said he wanted to "instill fear into their traitorous minds," said David Bowdich, special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division at the FBI's Los Angeles office. 
 
 "His intent was very clear in his note," Bowdich told reporters Saturday. "In that note he indicated his anger and his malice toward the TSA officers." 
 
 A law enforcement official told The Times that the screed resembled a "suicide note." The gunman said he didn't want to hurt anyone "innocent" — only TSA agents. The note also mentioned "NWO," a possible reference to the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that holds that forces are trying to create a totalitarian one-world government. 
 
 The shooter was apparently dropped off at LAX just after 9 a.m. Friday, authorities said, though they gave no details about the driver. The triggerman wore dark clothes and a bulletproof vest and had not purchased a ticket. He carried a Smith & Wesson .223-caliber M&P-15 assault rifle, five loaded magazines and a trove of ammunition, Bowdich said. 
 
 After shooting Hernandez, authorities and witnesses said, the gunman calmly fired his way through the screening area, all the while cursing TSA agents. He asked terrified bystanders: "Are you TSA?" If they answered no, he moved on. 
 
 In a 10-minute rampage that was captured on video, the shooter wounded two more TSA agents and injured at least one bystander, authorities said. Some travelers ducked behind planters and advertising kiosks to avoid gunfire; others fled to taxiing planes. Airport police, who were "60 seconds behind the suspect," according to airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon, shot the gunman in the leg and head near a food court. 
 
 The accused shooter remains "unresponsive" at a local hospital, said authorities, who have been unable to interview him. In addition to murder, federal prosecutors charged him with committing violence at an international airport. If convicted, the suspect could face life in prison or the death penalty. 
 
 The rampage temporarily halted traffic at the nation's third-busiest airport, stranding thousands of passengers. Terminal 3, which houses Virgin America, JetBlue and other airlines, reopened Saturday afternoon. 
 
 Hernandez was the first TSA agent slain in the line of duty. 
 
 On Saturday, Hernandez's widow briefly addressed reporters, praising her husband as an ever-smiling father of two who came to L.A. from El Salvador at age 15 and joined the TSA three years ago. A neighbor said he routinely woke up at 3 a.m. to get to LAX on time. 
 
 "He was always excited to go to work," said Ana Hernandez, who struggled to remain composed. "I am truly devastated." 
 
 John S. Pistole, who oversees the TSA, joined Hernandez in front of the family's Porter Ranch home. He said the unarmed TSA agents — often derided in politics and pop culture as an airport nuisance — were, in many respects, "the first line of defense" against violence. 
 
 He said the agency plans to reassess its policies, though he acknowledged that "we can't guard against all threats and all risks." J. David Cox, president of the union that represents 45,000 TSA employees, said airports should station armed security guards at each checkpoint, and that it should be a federal crime to assault a TSA officer. 
 
 Investigators said they were combing Ciancia's background for a possible motive. The unemployed motorcycle mechanic grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Pennsville Township, N.J., where his father runs an auto body shop.
– Alleged LAX gunman Paul Ciancia told investigators he had acted alone after being dropped off by a friend in a black Hyundai, a police official tells the AP; that friend, officials believe, didn't know what Ciancia had planned. The accused shooter is currently under heavy sedation—and 24-hour armed guard—in the hospital, after being shot four times, the insider says. Ciancia was charged yesterday with murder of a federal officer and committing violence at an international airport, and he could face the death penalty, the AP notes. Meanwhile, more details of the attack and its aftermath are emerging. After the gunman shot Gerardo Hernandez several times at point-blank range with a .223-caliber M&P-15 assault rifle, he began to walk away—but then, video suggests, Hernandez moved. That's when Ciancia "returned to shoot the wounded officer again," says the criminal complaint filed yesterday, as noted at NBC News. The note he carried—which was similar to a suicide note—made his anti-TSA "intent ... very clear," says an FBI rep, per the Los Angeles Times. The note said he hoped to "instill fear into (TSA workers') traitorous minds," but didn't seek to hurt anyone "innocent." Contrary to prior reports, Ciancia, an out-of-work motorcycle mechanic, wasn't a ticketed passenger, the AP notes. Two other TSA officers injured in the shooting are now out of the hospital.