INTRODUCTION: God forbid there's a terrorist attack in this city. But if the worst does happen because of lax security, does the government owe anything to the victims? The chilling answer traces back a shootout at LAX on July 4, 2002. Here's our exclusive investigation.
PAUL MOYER: A horror story in real time… the televised aftermath of a terrorist attack at LAX.
July 4th, 2002… just ten months after 9-11l… just minutes after an Egyptian national whipped out two pistols and opened up on El Al passengers at the Bradley terminal.
The shootout produced bloodshed and broken lives... this hero... and a lawsuit whose recent resolution, says attorney Richard Fine, affects us all.
ATTORNEY RICHARD FINE: The first lawsuit involving a terrorist attack at an airport in United States history.
PAUL MOYER: And now for the first time, an active-duty LAPD officer in a position to know reveals that the worst could have been prevented and what could happen again.
PAUL MOYER (TO OFFICER): Is the security in Bradley and El Al better today that it was July 4, 2002?
U.S. & World
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: No.
PAUL MOYER: LAPD Officer Bob Lopez was on the scene right after the shooting. His face is hidden to help protect his family from reprisal.
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): Are you concerned about the effect that this is going to have on your career?
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: I'm toast.
PAUL MOYER: Early on that fateful 4th, avowed anti-Semite Hesham Hadayat approaches the Bradley Terminal.
ATTORNEY RICHARD FINE: Armed with a 9 mm glock, a .45, ammunition wrapped around his body and a hunting knife.
PAUL MOYER: He passes through the front entrance where there's no metal detector... heads for the El Al counter and begins firing... killing one passenger, Jacob Aminov, and wounding another, Sarah Phillips, in the foot
SARAH PHILLIPS: I went down and I watched Jacob die and wanted to die with him because that was hard.
PAUL MOYER: Another bullet strikes counter attendant Vicki Hen, who dies seven minutes later, according her father Avi.
AVI HEN: She got a bullet in the heart.
ARIE GOLAN: I was, like, 15 feet away from him.
PAUL MOYER: Traveler Arie Golan sees the gunman firing.
ARIE GOLAN: I jumped on him and we started wrestling.
PAUL MOYER: One El Al guard, then another, joins the fight. One guard is knifed, then he shoots the killer dead.
According to eyewitnesses, it takes seven to ten minutes for the first airport police to show up -- nearly 25 minutes for the paramedics. Avi promises his dead daughter...
AVI HEN: If somebody made a mistake, they need to pay for this.
PAUL MOYER: The psychological fallout is devastating. Avi and Arie are too shaken ever to hold a steady job.
SARAH PHILLIPS: I lost everything.
PAUL MOYER: Sarah Philips now walks with a cane and relies on her son for support.
SARAH PHILLIPS: So he offered me a home, which was against my whole being.
PAUL MOYER: Richard Fine, acting for the victims' families, filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles demanding compensation for its failure to protect the El Al passengers.
He uncovered this FBI report, which revealed that in the months before the shooting, an LAPD airport officer -- Bob Lopez -- had repeatedly spotted suspicious people casing the EL Al counter, possibly including the shooter himself.
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): Did you go tell your superiors about that?
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: Yeah, I said, 'Listen, this is not a joke.' I said, 'We're going to get hit.' I said, 'You guys have got do something about it.'
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): And what did they say?
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: I told them what I saw and they just like blew me off.
PAUL MOYER: According to these LAPD records, two weeks before the shooting the FBI warned of impending attacks on the El Al counter and extra security patrols were recommended.
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): Were there increased patrols?
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: No.
PAUL MOYER: The day of the attack, according to information gathered in the victim’s lawsuit, only one cop was on duty at Bradley.
ATTORNEY RICHARD FINE: At the X-ray machine at the other end of the Tom Bradley Terminal.
PAUL MOYER: These police documents show that several members of the LAPD's airport detail were off taking part in 4th of July festivities. Assigned to a parade.
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: They pulled seven officers off our detail, even after the warnings. Some towards the beach, some towards the parade.
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): What's your reaction to that?
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: Stupidity, lack of leadership.
PAUL MOYER: Lopez was on night duty that day and arrived shortly after the shooting. He briefed the FBI on his early warnings and says he was promptly reprimanded by an LAPD superior.
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: He said, 'You rolled on us,' and I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'Why?' I said, 'I'm not going to a state prison because you guys dropped the ball. I didn't drop the ball.'
PAUL MOYER: The FBI declared the incident a terrorist attack, but nobody acknowledged the security breakdown.
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: As far as I know, everything has been covered up.
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): There has been nobody taken to task?
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: No.
PAUL MOYER: In a report to his superiors, Lopez urged that El Al be moved to a more secure terminal with bomb and metal detectors at the entrance. El Al objected to the proposal.
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: They did not want to be intimidated.
PAUL MOYER: As for the victims' lawsuit, they've lost. A lawyer representing the city's insurance company argued that since the cops did nothing to provide protection, the city should not be liable. The courts bought this idea, establishing what lawyer Fine calls a terrible precedent.
ATTORNEY RICHARD FINE: What the case means is that in a terrorist attack there is no protection for the civilian victims.
PAUL MOYER (TO LOPEZ): You know what, I listen to you and I think you're haunted by this to this day. I really do.
OFFICER BOB LOPEZ: Yes it bothers me, It angers me. Those Jews were left out there like cattle to be slaughtered.
STUDIO TAG: The airport police and LAPD decline to comment on this story. The airport's public relations director refuses to let the city's lawyer comment. Some think Bob Lopez, who is no longer assigned to LAX, may be overly alarmist about the current security picture. An inside source tells us new safeguards are in place, especially at the El Al counter.
