North Hollywood Man Killed at LAX in Shooting Attack Remembered

This story was written by City News Service

A memorial commemorating the victims of the July 4, 2002, shooting attack at Los Angeles International Airport that left two dead and four others wounded was held Thursday at the airport.

Israeli Consul General Danny Gadot, Klaus Hackel, El Al's station chief at Los Angeles International Airport in 2002, Avi Hen, whose 25-year-old daughter Vicky was shot and killed in the attack, and Nonie Darwish, the founder of Arabs for Israel and a human rights activist, attended the memorial service.

Vicky Hen, who was working behind the ticket counter for El Al, Israel's national airline, and Yaakov Aminov, a 46-year-old diamond importer from North Hollywood who had gone to the airport to see a friend off, were fatally shot by Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, a 41-year-old Egyptian national who lived in Irvine.

Hadayet, an owner of a limousine service, was slain by an El Al security guard.

Hadayet was despondent over a failing business and personal problems, and angered by Israel's treatment of Palestinians when he committed the killings, according to the FBI, which classified the shootings as a terrorist attack.