Air marshals kill passenger

Federal air marshals yesterday fatally shot a man who falsely claimed to have a bomb in his backpack during boarding at Miami International Airport for an American Airlines flight to Orlando, Fla.

The shooting, just after 2 p.m. on the ramp connecting the terminal with the plane, which originated in Colombia, marked the first time that an air marshal has discharged a weapon inside an airport or plane since the agency grew from 30 people to more than 2,000 after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said the man, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar of Maitland, Fla., “claimed to have a bomb, and when the air marshal team talked to him, he bolted and started running up the jetway and he reached into the bag which he claimed to have a bomb in.”

Mr. Doyle said that “multiple shots” were fired but that it was not clear whether one or both marshals on the plane fired the shots.

“They heard him say he had a bomb and they talked to him and said ’leave the plane,’ and he started to bolt and they chased him and tried to stop him and get him down on the ground, at which point he reached into the bag,” said Mr. Doyle, who confirmed that investigators have been told that Mr. Alpizar was mentally ill.

Federal Air Marshal Service spokesman Dave Adams told MSNBC that Mr. Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, was facing agents while yelling the threats.

Officials said no explosive devices were found in Mr. Alpizar’s bag. The plane, a Boeing 757, was emptied of all luggage, dogs sniffed among it, and three pieces of Mr. Alpizar’s luggage were blown up on the tarmac. The remains will be sent to a laboratory for analysis.

“There really is no bomb at this point,” said Bobby Parker, director of the Miami/Dade Police Department. “This was an unfortunate incident.”

The FBI said there was no indication that the incident was related to terrorism.

Numerous air marshals contacted by The Washington Times said the accounts of the agents’ actions are consistent with training and, while in hindsight it is unfortunate, the shooting was appropriate.

One former air marshal familiar with the undercover agent training, said, “You can’t perform a psychological evaluation when someone is coming toward you and threatening to blow you up.”

Officials told The Washington Times that Mr. Alpizar flew into Miami from Ecuador, got off his plane, went through immigration and customs, retrieved his luggage and returned through security before boarding Flight 924, a domestic flight to Orlando.

“They might as well have been back out on the sidewalk, and they have to start at ground zero and go back through security again,” said one airline pilot.

The Boeing 757 had arrived in Miami from Medellin, Colombia, at 12:16 p.m. It was scheduled to depart two hours later with 120 passengers and crew.

The shooting occurred during boarding for Orlando.

According to witness accounts, Mr. Alpizar stood up when boarding was nearly completed, argued with his wife and then ran down the aisle toward the front of the plane.

“He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air,” passenger Mary Gardner told WTVJ in Miami.

A woman followed him down the aisle shouting, “My husband! My husband!” and saying that he had bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depression, and had not taken his medication.

Mr. Alpizar of Maitland, an Orlando suburb, worked at a Home Depot paint department.

Relatives told reporters that Mr. Alpizar was a native of Costa Rica and that he and his wife had been on vacation in Peru. A neighbor who said he had been asked to watch the couple’s home described the vacation as a missionary trip.

“We’re all still in shock. We’re just speechless,” a sister-in-law, Kelley Beuchner, told the Associated Press.

Concourse D, American Airlines’ largest terminal, was evacuated and searched to ensure that the suspect was not a decoy for terrorists. It was shut down for about a half-hour, but the airport’s other concourses operated as normal.

“If he had been a decoy for someone else, they have to evacuate and go through the motions,” said one federal flight deck officer based out of Miami. “That’s a main artery, that terminal is a big boy to shut down.”

An alert from the Department of Homeland Security was immediately issued to airport security directors nationwide urging that they “maintain a heightened level of vigilance.”

American Airlines said other passengers and crew were not in danger. An FBI official said a joint investigation by the Justice Department and Homeland Security Department will continue.