Hesham Mohamed Hadayet

Hesham Mohamed Hadayet (Arabic: هشام محمد هداية‎ (July 4, 1961 - July 4, 2002) was an Egyptian-American terrorist who on July 4, 2002, murdered 2 people and wounded 4 others at Los Angeles International Airport in the 2002 Los Angeles Airport shooting. The two people murdered were Israelis at the El Al ticket counter at the airport, identified as a ticket agent (Victoria Hen) and a diamond importer (Yakov Aminov). Hadayet was killed during the attack by an El Al security guard.

Bio

Hadayet immigrated to the United States in 1992. He had a green card which allowed him to work as a limousine driver.

Hadayet was married with at least one child. At the time of the terrorist act, Hadayet was living in Irvine, California.

Official designation as a terrorist act

Initially, Hadayet's shooting was considered an "isolated incident". However, in September 2002, federal investigators concluded that Hadayet hoped to influence U.S. government policy in favor of the Palestinians, and that the incident was a terrorist act.

In April 2003, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice confirmed the earlier conclusion that the incident fit the definition of terrorism.