A Southern California performing arts teacher managed to keep himself alive with a makeshift tourniquet after being shot by a lone gunman who violently descended upon the Los Angeles International Airport.
Brian Ludmer, 29, was recovering from surgery Saturday after being shot in the leg while trying to catch a flight to a friend’s wedding the day before.
"He dragged himself to a nearby closet, closed the door and relied on his old Boy Scouts training to create a makeshift tourniquet to help slow the bleeding," said Dan Stepenosky, superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District.
Ludmer waited inside the closet until he heard a police officer. He cracked the door open, saw it was a police officer and called for help.
"It’s kind of incomprehensible," Stepenosky said. "You go to the airport to go to a wedding ... and now he's in a hospital."
Friends, family members and colleagues were by the hospital bedside of the Calabasas teacher.
"He sounds great, given what he’s gone through," Stepenosky said. "He’s optimistic and upbeat, and he sounds exhausted."
Ludmer was one of five people shot during the rampage, including one Transportation Security Administration officer who was killed.
Police blame Friday's rampage on suspect Paul Anthony Ciancia, a 23-year-old New Jersey native, who opened fire at a TSA document checkpoint of Terminal 3 of the Bradley International Terminal.
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The FBI announced Saturday that federal prosecutors will file murder charges against Ciancia in connection with the shooting.
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