Ex-TSA screener indicted in airport threats case
Sep 23, 2013, 10:06 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A former Los Angeles International Airport security screener has been indicted on six counts accusing him of making threats that forced the evacuation of several terminals on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11, authorities said Monday.
Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, was indicted Friday on three counts each of false information and hoaxes, and making telephonic threats. If convicted, he faces up to 45 years in prison. Onuoha, originally from Nigeria, is being held without bond.
Onuoha quit his Transportation Security Administration job earlier this month and returned hours later to leave a package at the agency’s airport headquarters that was addressed to a manager.
Onuoha made calls saying the airport should be cleared immediately and he would be watching to make sure the evacuation took place, according to the indictment. He also told airport police he “was going to deliver a message to America and to the world,” the indictment alleges.
A bomb squad found no explosives or harmful contents in the package left at LAX. Authorities discovered an eight-page letter in which Onuoha expressed disdain for the U.S. and referenced an event where he allegedly made inappropriate comments to a 15-year-old girl at LAX in June that led to his suspension.
When police searched Onuoha’s apartment in Inglewood, they found no dangerous materials but did turn up a handwritten note containing unspecified threats that cited the anniversary of the terror attacks, authorities said.
Onuoha told investigators he didn’t intend the calls to the airport to be threats and he had no violent intentions, according to court documents. He said he wanted to start preaching in the streets on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
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