A FLORIDA state attorney ruled today (May 24,2006) that two US air marshals were justified in the fatal shooting of a passenger at Miami's International Airport who wrongly claimed to have a bomb, even though the man was being treated for mental illness.
“The shooting death of Mr (Rigoberto) Alpizar, while tragic, is legally justified in light of the surrounding circumstances presented by the air marshals,” the state attorney's office in Miami said in a report of its investigations of the December 7 incident.
“It should be noted that the air marshals demonstrated remarkable restraint in dealing with Mr Alpizar,” the report said.
It said the two air marshals who killed Mr Alpizar, 44, on an air bridge had no way of knowing the man was being treated for bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, and were correct in taking him seriously when he said his backpack contained a bomb.
Mr Alpizar and his wife, both Florida residents, had boarded a connecting flight to Orlando, Florida, after flying home from Ecuador, when the man suddenly grabbed his backpack and rushed out of the American Airlines plane.
When two air marshals who were on board blocked his way, Mr Alpizar allegedly claimed he had a bomb in his backpack. His wife tried to follow him, yelling “he is sick”, according to the report.
Mr Alpizar then headed back to the plane from the air bridge and lunged toward the door, ignoring the marshals' command to “get down,” and telling the officers: “Just shoot me.”
The marshals opened fire, and an autopsy later found 10 gunshot wounds on Mr Alpizar's body.
No explosives were found.
The state attorney's office said it was “irrelevant” whether Mr Alpizar actually had a bomb, or suffered from a mental illness, in a world threatened by terrorists.
“In a post-September 11th and Madrid bombing world, the air marshals were faced with a man on an American Airlines flight clutching a backpack on his chest, claiming to have a bomb and threatening to detonate it while heading back toward the aircraft,” it said.
The incident was the first of its kind since the number of air marshals on US planes was dramatically increased after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Federal air marshals, armed but wearing civilian clothes, travel on selected US domestic and international flights. Their mission is officially to “detect, deter and defeat hostile acts targeting US air carriers, airports, passengers and crews”.
They are trained to blend in with other passengers, though crews and other armed law enforcement officers on a given flight are informed of their identity.
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