The BBC's Emily Thomas: "Shocked travellers dropped to the ground"
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said three of its staff had been injured, one fatally.
The suspect - named by the FBI as 23-year-old Los Angeles resident Paul Anthony Ciancia - was wounded by police and detained.
Hundreds of flights nationwide were affected by the incident.
LA Airport police chief Patrick Gannon told reporters a "lone shooter" came into Terminal 3 at 9:20 local time (16:20 GMT).
The suspect "pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire in the terminal" inside the nation's third largest airport, he said.
He then allegedly went to a security screening area and continued shooting.
"As you can imagine, a large amount of chaos took place in this entire incident," Mr Gannon said.
It was the first time a TSA officer was killed in the line of duty, according to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
'Suicide text'
The TSA named the killed officer as 39-year-old Gerardo Hernandez.
According to US media, the alleged gunman approached potential victims asking if they worked for the TSA, and spared them if they said no.
He pushed through screening gates and walked more than 100 yards (90m) into the secure area of the terminal, Mr Gannon said, where law enforcement officers caught up with him in a food court.
As he began firing in the terminal, "everybody pancaked down on the ground", passenger Lauren Stephens, who was checking in at the time, told Reuters news agency.
Then, when more shots rang out, "I just left my bag and I just ran like hell. Everybody ran. People were falling. People were just trying to help each other out."
A photo from the scene of the incident showed police officers standing near an unidentified weapon.
Outside, video footage showed a man in a wheelchair been taken to receive medical help.
TSA employees comforted each other outside Terminal 1
There were chaotic scenes as the terminal was hurriedly closed.
Nearly 750 flights were disrupted by the attack
The airport closure left traffic backing up on roads around the airport
Another witness, Leon Saryan, told CNN that the same man he had just seen shoot a TSA officer "calmly" walked toward him and asked, "TSA?"
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