LAX shooting won't change airport security plan

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal authorities say they won't accelerate plans to place armed security agents in airport terminals around the country despite Thursday's deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport.

The Transportation Security Administration planned to place uniformed and plainclothes law enforcement officers and criminal investigators in U.S. airports by the end of the year. TSA spokeswoman Mari K. Eder said the incident at LAX will not alter that schedule.

"This is nothing new," said Eder. "There is not going to be a new or earlier deployment of law enforcement officers."

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After September 11, about 6,000 armed National Guard troops were deployed to protect airport terminals. In May, they were replaced by local law enforcement until the TSA can hire and train its own security force.

The TSA, which was created by Congress after the September 11 terrorist attacks, has not said how many officers it will be hiring or exactly where they will be deployed.

On Thursday, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, an Egyptian national, walked into the international terminal at LAX armed with two handguns and a knife and began firing at the ticket counter for El Al, the Israeli airline. Two people were killed before an El Al security guard shot and killed Hadayet. (Full story)

The shooting raised concerns about whether the security measures implemented since September 11 -- which focused on keeping hijackers off of airliners -- were adequate to protect people at ticket counters, which can usually be reached without going through metal detectors.

"This incident, even if isolated and regardless of motive, emphasizes that we cannot be complacent about any of the security measures that we put in place at our airports and at the other modes of transportation," the TSA said in a statement.

"Had this even occurred at another airline counter without armed security guards, the situation unfortunately would have been worse."

-- CNN Correspondent Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.