Crime & Safety
Former TSA Employee Arrested Following LAX Threats
Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, of Inglewood was arrested just before midnight Tuesday in Riverside.
A former Transportation Security Administration screener suspected of making threats to terminals at Los Angeles International Airport was in custody today following his arrest in Riverside, authorities said.
Nna Alpha Onuoha, 29, of Inglewood, was arrested just before midnight Tuesday by members of the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force with assistance from the Riverside Police Department, said Los Angeles-based FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
It was not immediately clear why the man went to Riverside.
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Officers arrested Onuoha in van that was parked in the parking lot of the Harvest Church, at Adams Street and Arlington Avenue, said Riverside police Lt. Guy Toussaint. The parking lot is near Riverside Airport. A bomb squad searched the van and the parking lot, and the area was determined to be safe, Toussaint said.
Onuoha Tuesday resigned from the TSA, which had employed him since 2006, Eimiller said, adding without elaboration that he had recently been suspended from his job. The Los Angeles Times reported on its website that Onuoha allegedly criticized a 15-year-old girl for her attire at the airport -- a run- in that earned headlines when her father publicized it on his blog.
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After he resigned, Onuoha allegedly left a package at the TSA's LAX headquarters addressed to an agency employee, Eimiller said in a statement issued early this morning.
A Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad determined the package was harmless, but it did contain an eight-page letter in which Onuoha wrote about the incident that led to his suspension and expressed "his disdain for the United States," she said.
"Later in the day, a male believed to be Onuoha telephonically contacted the TSA, instructing an employee to 'begin evacuating certain terminals at the airport,"' Eimiller said. "The caller told the employee that he would 'be watching' to see if TSA was evacuating the terminals as he instructed."
Another call was received by the TSA, again believed to have been from Onuoha, saying that specific LAX terminals should be evacuated, she said.
"The terminals in question were cleared by law enforcement personnel and no threat to the airport was found," Eimiller said.
Members of the JTTF then went to Onuoha's apartment, which they found empty except for a note taped inside a closet "containing an unspecified threat citing the 9/11/13 anniversary," she said.
Onuoha was later arrested and was being held on suspicion of making threats, pending further investigation, Eimiller said.
On June 16, blogger Mark Frauenfelder wrote on his boingboing website that his 15-year-old daughter had been "humiliated and shamed" by a TSA agent at LAX. He did not name the agent, but an unnamed law enforcement official told The Times it was Onuoha.
Frauenfelder wrote on his blog that his daughter was traveling with a high school tour group when the TSA officer glared at her and told her "You're only 15. Cover yourself!" Frauenfelder included a photo of the outfit his daughter was wearing.
"It doesn't matter what she was wearing, though, because it's none of his business to tell girls what they should or should not wear," the blogger wrote. "His creepy thoughts are his own problem and he shouldn't use his position of authority as an excuse to humiliate a girl and blame her for his sick attitude."
—City News Service
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