http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57610504-504083/lax-shooting-paul-ciancia-suspected-gunman-in-airport-attack-sent-suicide-related-text-to-family-police-chief-says/LAX Shooting: Paul Ciancia, suspected gunman in airport attack, sent suicide-related text to family, police chief says
By
Stephanie Slifer
Daily Blotter
Paul Ciancia
/ Photo obtained by CBS News
UPDATED 6:41 p.m. EST
(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Paul Ciancia, the 23-year-old man identified as the Los Angeles airport shooting suspect, had apparently made references to suicide in a text message sent to a family member of his earlier Friday, a New Jersey police chief says.
PICTURES: Shooting at LAX
Pennsville Township Police Chief Allen Cummings says Ciancia's father called him early Friday afternoon saying another of his children had received a text message from his son Paul "in reference to him taking his own life."
Cummings says the elder Ciancia asked him for help in locating Paul. The chief says he called Los Angeles police, who sent a patrol car to Ciancia's apartment.
There, two roommates said they had seen him Thursday and that he was fine.
Cummings says he told Ciancia's father that because of the son's age, he couldn't take a missing persons report. He says his department had no dealings with the younger Ciancia.
A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity identified the suspect as the younger Ciancia.
U.S. law enforcement officials have confirmed that the suspected gunman has a family address in New Jersey but that he spent some time in the Los Angeles area.
A preliminary review of the terror data bases and watch lists find no connections to Ciancia. And he does not have any significant police record.
Also, sources say, despite some reports to the contrary, the suspect is still alive.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that "anti-government, anti-TSA writings" were found in the shooter's carry-on style bag.
Authorities believe a lone gunman was behind the shooting at LAX Friday morning that left multiple victims wounded, Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon said at a press conference. Gannon said the gunman was taken into custody following an officer-involved shooting.
Gannon said the gunman entered Terminal 3 of the airport at about 9:30 a.m., PST, pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire. The gunman then proceeded up into the screening area and continued shooting, according to Gannon. He said the gunman got "far, very far back into the terminal."
He said the individual was tracked through the airport and authorities engaged him in gunfire inside Terminal 3. It was then that the suspect was taken into custody.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Jim Featherstone said the Los Angeles Fire Department treated seven individuals and transported six of those individuals to area hospitals.
A male TSA officer was killed in connection to the shooting. The union representing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the male officer who was killed was a Behavior Detection Officer (BDO) who was the travel document checker at the checkpoint area, had recently transferred to LAX from Montana, and had no prior interaction with the shooter.
CBS Los Angeles has reported one 40-year-old male is dead in connection to the shooting. It is unclear whether the 40-year-old male is the TSA officer.