Air Marshal Kills Passenger, Citing Threat
Posted on December 7, 2005
Hat tip:Michelle Malkin
MIAMI – An agitated passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday after he bolted frantically from a jetliner that was about to take off, officials said. No bomb was found.
The man, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, was gunned down on a jetway just before the American Airlines plane was about to leave for Orlando, near his home in Maitland.
It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said.
According to a witness, the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.
The passenger indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.
Another mistake, but who can blame the Marshall for his response? I think he did exactly the right thing, and it makes me feel safer that we have such rapid responders. I wonder if the lefties will try to make a bad guy out of this man? Any one else feel an ACLU lawsuit coming on?
And so the demonizing begins.
Here are a few headlines.
U.S. Marshall Kills Passenger
Bloomberg: U.S. Air Marshal Shoots American Airlines Passenger
Rediff: US air marshal guns down passenger
NY Times: Air Marshals Shoot and Kill Passenger at Miami Airport
MSNBC: Air marshal guns down man at Miami airport
CNN: Official: Marshal shoots passenger on Jetway at Miami airport
Others: The Political Teen
The Travel Bloggers
Cold Fury
Froggy Ruminations
My Pet Jawa
» Filed Under News, War On Terror
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8 Responses to “Air Marshal Kills Passenger, Citing Threat”
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One has to wonder if he did have a bomb, and the marshall let him reach into the bag. Would the headlines have read,
Miami Plane Explodes with 2 Air Marshalls Onboard: Investigation Begins on Why They Did not Stop This Attack
If this man was mentally ill, there’s nothing to distinguish him from a million other Hispanics in Central and South Florida. An unfortunate incident, but anyone who claims to have a bomb and behaves accordingly is likely to be shot. I don’t think you’ll see a lot of crying about this out outside of the man’s family.
I see that CBS got to someone who is not too bright. He said he has a bomb in his back pack he reached for his back pack, the air marshall killed the stupid individual. Who said the air marshall said the man had a bomb, seems to me that the people on the plane were saying this. More Than Loans get a life and listen to the news reports. This man was stupid enough to get his self killed, simple as that. Give the Air Marshall a REWARD/
Strange how press from both the right and the left chose to use their headlines to shine the spotlight on the Air Marshal’s actions rather than the fact that there had been a bomb threat:
Federal Air Marshals vs. The Free Press
El Al would be proud. Notice the darkness of the name. Looks like TSA has the common sense to profile based on skin color.
Wow Jay,
Thanks for linking to my post. I had stated on my radio show earlier on Wednesday that it wouldn’t be long before the press begin to demonize the Air Marshal hence the article “I told you so…Msnm Demonizing Air Marshal”
Thanks again
J.R.
Hi there – I keep getting error messages with trackback, so I thought I’d send you a manual “kudos” from the Conservababes. Great post – and we’ll keep checking back for updates as this situation decends to new lows of rabid lunacy.
Cheers!
DC
it’s interesting. the first few articles i read stated that the passenger had said he had a bomb. but now i’ve read a bunch of other articles, and supposedly not one passenger heard the word bomb, at all… so where did he say it? in the jetway?
even if he didn’t say bomb at all, this is still obviously complicated. i wonder how the air marshall training covers the handling of questionable threats? obviously the air marshall needs to make a split second decision…