L.A. granted immunity in airport shooting

los angeles (jta) | Families of two Israeli Americans killed by a terrorist at Los Angeles International Airport are not due any compensation from the city of Los Angeles, a federal judge has ruled.

The victims, Yaakov (Jacob) Aminov, 46, and Victoria Hen, 25, were standing at an El Al check-in counter when they were gunned down by Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohamed Hadayet on July 4, 2002.

Hadayet was killed immediately after the shooting spree while wrestling with El Al security guard Arie Golan.

In dismissing the $87.5 million multiple suits against the city March 29, U.S. District Judge Alicemarie Stotler ruled that California law grants immunity to public agencies for failure to provide adequate police protection.

Attorney Richard Fine said the victims' families were "devastated and shocked," and he sharply criticized the judge and the city. He promised to take the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Fine represented Aminov's widow, Adat, their five children, and three children from Aminov's previous marriage, all now living in Israel. He also represented Hen's parents, who live in the Los Angeles area.

Hen had been working as an El Al ticket agent for less than two months when she was killed.

Golan, the El Al security agent; Michael Shabtai and Moti Harari, who stood in line next to Aminov; and Harari's 6-year-old daughter also sought compensation for emotional trauma and loss of income.

In an interview, Fine attacked the ruling in unusually harsh language.

"The court and city are saying that the value of an ordinary citizen's life is zero," he charged. "It is a shanda," a shame, "that violates every principle of humanity."

Fine also claimed that Stotler mistakenly had ignored an applicable recent ruling by the California Supreme Court.

He was even angrier at the failure of city and airport police to provide protection, even though law enforcement agencies already had pinpointed the Los Angeles airport and the first July 4 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as likely terrorist targets.

"There was only one airport policeman on hand, and he was at the other end of the terminal,' Fine said.

But attorney Douglas Knoll, who represented the city's insurance company, said there had been a maximum deployment of police.

After a drawn-out investigation, the pace of which was criticized by Israeli officials, the FBI belatedly classified the airport attack as a terrorist act, fueled by Hadayet's hatred of Israel.

Hadayet, a limousine driver who used two guns, a knife and an extra clip of ammunition during the attack, had no links to terrorist organizations, according to the FBI report.

A civil suit for compensation against Hadayet's estate is still pending.