The young man believed to have carried out a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport had sent a sibling a text message mentioning suicide, leading their father to seek authorities' help in finding him, a New Jersey police chief said Friday. 
 
 Paul Ciancia's father called Pennsville Police Chief Allen Cummings early Friday afternoon saying another of his children had received a text message from the 23-year-old "in reference to him taking his own life," the chief told The Associated Press. 
 
 The elder Ciancia asked for help in locating Paul, Cummings said. The chief called Los Angeles police, which sent a patrol car to Ciancia's apartment. It wasn't clear whether the police visited before or after the airport shooting. 
 
 "Basically, there were two roommates there" Cummings said. "They said, `We saw him yesterday and he was fine.'" 
 
 He told Cianci's father that because of his son's age, he couldn't take a missing persons report. 
 
 A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity identified Paul Ciancia as the man who pulled a semi-automatic rifle from a bag and shot his way past a security checkpoint at the airport, killing a security officer and wounding two other people. 
 
 The gunman was wounded in a shootout with police and was taken into custody, Los Angeles police said. 
 
 The official who identified Ciancia was briefed at the airport on the investigation and requested anonymity because was he was not authorized to speak publicly. 
 
 A motive wasn't immediately clear. The shooter was wearing fatigues and carrying a bag containing a handwritten note that said he "wanted to kill TSA and pigs," the official said. 
 
 A second law enforcement official confirmed the identity, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. 
 
 The Pennsville police department has had no dealings with the younger Ciancia, Cummings said. 
 
 Outside the father's home Friday in Pennsville _ in southern New Jersey across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Del. _ a police cruiser blocked the long driveway to the home, which isn't visible from the road. Phone calls weren't answered, and efforts to reach siblings were also unsuccessful. 
 
 Neighbor Josh Pagan, 17, said that he would sometimes encounter Ciancia at orthodontist appointments, but that it had been at least two years since the last one. 
 
 "He was never weird toward me. He never gave me any weird vibes," he said, adding that in the 10 years he's lived across the street from the Ciancia family "they've been nothing but nice to us." 
 
 Ciancia's father owns an auto body shop, Cummings said. 
 
 "I've been here 23 years and they are a good family," he said. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Rubinkam reported from Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Tami Abdollah in Los Angeles and Alicia Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| Dressed for combat and carrying a note saying he wanted to “kill TSA and pigs,” a gunman who grew up in New Jersey opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, killing one Transportation Security Administration officer and injuring two other people, officials said. 
 
 The terror in Terminal 3 claimed the life of the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty in the agency’s 12-year history and left the gunman, who authorities identified as 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia, wounded in a shootout with police. 
 
 A coast away, Ciancia’s relatives in the Salem County community of Pennsville — about 15 miles from Wilmington, Del. — frantically tried to alert police he may be suicidal, based on a text message he sent his brother. 
 
 But he was away from his Los Angeles apartment when police arrived, and the shooting at one of America’s largest and most famous airports — commonly referred to as LAX — set off a stampede of people who ignored an officer’s shouts of: “Everybody on the floor! On the floor now!” Some people were injured in the mayhem, authorities said. 
 
 The Los Angeles Times reported Ciancia asked people whether they worked for the TSA before deciding whether to shoot them or let them walk. 
 
 A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly, told the Associated Press Ciancia was carrying a handwritten note that said he wanted to kill TSA employees and “pigs.” 
 
 The official said the rant refers to how Ciancia believed his constitutional rights were being violated by TSA searches and that he’s a “pissed-off patriot” upset at former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The note and the gunman’s rifle each had an orange TSA inspection sticker on it. 
 
 The reverberations were felt in New Jersey, where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International Airport as well as LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports, increased patrols. 
 
 “Safety and security of our facilities and the millions of people we serve daily are always of the utmost concern, and our police and staff remain vigilant against any possible threats,” Port Authority Chief Security Officer Joseph Dunne said. 
 
 The chaos began shortly before 9:30 a.m. Pacific time — 12:30 p.m. in New Jersey — when Ciancia entered the airport, pulled a semi-automatic rifle from a bag and opened fire at a security checkpoint, authorities said. 
 
 “This morning, a gunman opened fire in LAX’s Terminal 3, killing a TSA agent — the first to die in the line of duty — and shooting two other people, at least one of which was a TSA agent,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a late afternoon news conference. “Additional individuals have had minor injuries and have been treated. Airport police officers engaged the suspect, opened fire, wounded him and took him into custody.” Ciancia’s condition was not released. 
 
 In a statement Friday night, the TSA identified the dead officer as 39-year-old Gerardo I. Hernandez. 
 
 In addition to Hernandez and two other people who were shot, “there are additional injuries, some of which seem to be potential evasion injuries — where they may have injured themselves trying to get away,” David Bowdich, special agent in charge of the counterterrorism division at FBI Los Angeles, said at the same news conference. 
 
 Of Ciancia, Bowdich said, “We are currently investigating his background and more about him.” 
 
 Between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. California time, 746 flights were affected — 46 were diverted to other local airports and the rest were either held on the ground at LAX or at their originating airport, said Gina Marie Lindsey, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates LAX. 
 
 “This has been a trying day for everyone,” she said, as forensics teams from the FBI and Los Angeles Police Department continued their long, methodical work. 
 
 Celebrities and regular folk alike were held up in the delays during peak traveling hours. 
 
 “Currently waiting on the plane in a remote parking area. I am safe. Praying for the victims of this shooting,” tweeted Jersey native Nick Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers pop band. 
 
 Actor and director James Franco was more blunt, tweeting, complete with asterisks, “At #lax Some (expletive) shot up the place.” 
 
 Meanwhile, local and federal authorities arrived at the Ciancia home in Pennsville Friday night, and were meeting with family members inside, according to the South Jersey Times, a sister publication to The Star-Ledger. Pennsville is a community of about 13,000 not far from the Delaware Memorial Bridge. 
 
 Police vehicles blocked the long driveway leading to the home, which sits far back off the road in a wooded area. 
 
 Neighbors were shocked by the news. 
 
 “I talked to him here and there. He seemed very sociable, just a normal guy,” Joshua Pagan, 17, who lives across the street from the Ciancia home, told the South Jersey Times. “When we were younger, we both had braces, so I would see him at (orthodontist) appointments. Never once did I see anything off about him. When I first found out, it was almost like — it can’t be him.” 
 
 Pennsville Police Chief Allen Cummings said Ciancia’s father, also named Paul, called him early Friday afternoon about a disturbing text message Ciancia sent “in reference to him taking his own life.” 
 
 Cummings said Ciancia’s father asked him for help in locating his son. Cummings called Los Angeles police, who went to Ciancia’s apartment. There, two roommates said they had seen him Thursday and that he was fine. 
 
 Ciancia’s father owns an auto body shop in Salem County. 
 
 The younger Ciancia is a 2008 graduate of the Salesianum School, a Roman Catholic independent school for boys in Wilmington, Del., and moved out west about a year-and-a-half ago, the South Jersey Times reported. 
 
 Cummings said the Ciancias are a “good family” and that his department had had no dealings with the younger Ciancia. 
 
 Ciancia had at least five full 30-round magazines on him, an official briefed on the investigation told the Associated Press. The official said Ciancia was shot in the mouth and leg by two airport police officers. 
 
 “We just hit the deck. Everybody in the line hit the floor and shots just continued,” said Xavier Savant, who was waiting in the security line where the shooting took place. He described it as a “Bam! Bam! Bam!” burst of gunfire. 
 
 Savant, who was heading to New York with his family for the weekend, said panicked travelers ran through the metal detectors and into the terminal. 
 
 “My whole thing was to get away from him,” he said. 
 
 J. David Cox Sr., national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA workers, released a statement saying he was sickened by the “heinous act.” 
 
 “Thank you to all of our brave (transportation security officers) who put their lives on the line every day to keep the flying public safe,” he said. 
 
 The South Jersey Times and the Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| PENNSVILLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. — People who knew Paul Anthony Ciancia struggled to reconcile the quiet teenager who by some accounts was bullied in high school with the man who allegedly targeted Transportation Security Administration workers during a fatal shooting rampage at LAX. 
 
 In this suburban Philadelphia neighborhood, people described him as shy and a little awkward but said they never saw signs of anger or violent tendencies. 
 
 "He kept to himself and ate lunch alone a lot," said David Hamilton, who graduated with Ciancia from Salesianum School in Wilmington, Del., in 2008. "I really don't remember any one person who was close to him.... In four years, I never heard a word out of his mouth." 
 
 Hamilton, an editorial assistant at a publishing firm in Philadelphia, said he recalled Ciancia being the victim of bullying, but did not remember any particular incidents. 
 
 "He was quiet and people would take advantage of that," he said. 
 
 Police say that Ciancia, 23, went to LAX on Friday morning, pulled a rifle out of a bag and began shooting at TSA agents, killing a 39-year-old screener, identified as Gerardo I. Hernandez, the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty. 
 
 A law enforcement official told The Times that a note was found on the gunman expressing "disappointment in the government" and saying that he had no interest in hurting "innocent people." 
 
 Several witnesses said he appeared to shoot only at TSA agents and avoided shooting passengers. Ciancia was wounded by police. His condition was not released. 
 
 Another law enforcement source said the note contained the letters "NWO." Investigators are trying to determine whether he was a believer in the New World Order, a conspiracy theory which holds that forces are trying to create a single totalitarian government on Earth. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, emphasized that it is still early in the investigation and that detectives are not sure what role, if any, "NWO" played in the case. 
 
 Law enforcement sources say that Ciancia's family called police here after a relative received a text message that led the family to believe he might be suicidal. Authorities in New Jersey contacted the Los Angeles Police Department for a welfare check. 
 
 Ciancia lived in an apartment complex on Los Feliz Boulevard in Atwater Village. It's unclear how long he had lived in Los Angeles or what he did for a living. 
 
 Marc Kreiner, who owns The Morrison, a restaurant and bar next door to the apartment complex, said he knew Ciancia by sight. He had been into the bar about half a dozen times, he said. 
 
 "He was kind of a quiet guy, came in mostly by himself, and one time with a couple of guys," Kreiner said. 
 
 One resident of the apartment complex said a large group of police officers detained or arrested a man at the location earlier in the day. It's unclear if that was related to the shooting case. 
 
 People who knew Ciancia said they were shocked that he was accused of being the gunman in the LAX attack. 
 
 Former classmate Jeff Skidmore said he attended first-period band class with Ciancia, who he thought played French horn. He said Ciancia wore black on "dress down" days when students were not required to wear uniforms, and he seemed to have a speech impediment. He said Ciancia did not seem to like being called on to read aloud in class as a result. 
 
 He said that he never saw Ciancia being bullied, but that he was very solitary. 
 
 "We left him alone," Skidmore said. 
 
 School officials confirmed that Ciancia graduated from the high school in 2008. 
 
 Ciancia grew up in on a wooded street in Pennsville Township, about a mile from his father's prospering auto body shop. His father was an associate member of the Fraternal Order of Police and a supporter of local Little League teams. 
 
 Neighbors said they would see Ciancia and his brother riding four-wheeled vehicles up and down their long driveway. But tragedy struck the family a few years ago, neighbors said, when Ciancia's mother died after a long illness. 
 
 "This is an absolute tragedy, in the highest sense" said Orlando Pagan, a police officer in neighboring Penns Grove. "It was a very good family. Whatever happened, it had nothing to do with their upbringing." 
 
 "When I heard, I just got this feeling in the pit of my stomach," added Gary Hankins, who lives a few doors away. "My heart goes out not only to Paul but to the people who were hurt in L.A. It just ripples down for all these families." 
 
 joe tanfani@latimes.com abby.sewell@latimes.comscott.glover@latimes.com 
 
 Tanfani reported from New Jersey, Sewell and Glover from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Lisa Girion, Matt Stevens and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
– We've got a name but still no real explanation of why a shooter opened fire at LAX today. Authorities have identified the gunman at Los Angeles International Airport as 23-year-old Paul Ciancia. A law-enforcement official says Ciancia was carrying a note that said he "wanted to kill TSA and pigs," reports AP. One witness tells NBC News that the gunman approached him calmly in the airport while carrying his weapon. "All he said was, 'TSA?' Just like that." (The one person killed in today's shooting was a TSA employee.) Not much is known about Ciancia at this point, but a separate AP story has this surprising nugget: His father in Pennsville, NJ, called police there this afternoon because Ciancia had texted one of his siblings suggesting he was about to kill himself. The New Jersey chief called the police in LA, who sent a patrol car to his apartment. He wasn't there. "Basically, there were two roommates there," says the Pennsville chief. "They said, 'We saw him yesterday and he was fine.'"