US Marshal Fires Aboard Jet in Miami

[ELVIS]

No, I'm white...

[LoungeMachine]

December 8, 2005 |


EXCLUSIVE:

Shoe Bomber Alert Preceded Airport Shooting

Egyptian Man Had Been Stopped at New York Airport; Shoes Tested Positive for Explosive


By BRIAN ROSS and CHRIS ISHAM

Dec. 7, 2005 — Federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News they had been on the alert for a possible shoe bomber when a federal air marshal opened fire at the Miami International Airport today.

In today's incident, an agitated passenger claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal, officials said. No bomb was found.


Officials say a 50-year old Egyptian man was stopped six days ago at New York's John F. Kennedy airport. Sources say he had a suspicious pair of shoes that tested positive five times for the explosive substance TATP on the interior of his shoes between the heel and sole.

Federal officials say the man's shoes are remarkably similar to those used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines jet over the Atlantic four years ago.

The Egyptian man's destination was Des Moines, Iowa, sources say, and he claimed he was a student at Iowa State University, in Ames.

Strangely, after holding him overnight, airport security in New York released him. The FBI was notified after he was released. Now the FBI has put out a nationwide alert.

The man shot dead in Miami appears to have been deranged, but the missing Egyptian may help explain why air marshals acted as they did.

[ELVIS]

Why was he let go...

[LoungeMachine]

Link for ELVIS, because he thinks I make this shit up

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=1383832

[LoungeMachine]

It sure seems to me that this story is a plant to try and help justify the marshal's actions.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by LoungeMachine

Officials say a 50-year old Egyptian man was stopped six days ago at New York's John F. Kennedy airport. Sources say he had a suspicious pair of shoes that tested positive five times for the explosive substance TATP on the interior of his shoes between the heel and sole.

Federal officials say the man's shoes are remarkably similar to those used by shoe bomber Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up an American Airlines jet over the Atlantic four years ago.

Exhibit A

[Cathedral]

Originally posted by Ally_Kat
Already done. Most of NYC's broadcast news is asking the question, "did they go too far?", "But he was mentally ill! The gov't supports the murder of mentally ill people! We must stop them."

It made me sick to watch it. And kinda funny because the witness quotes they were using totally contradicted what they were reporting.

Same thing here, but they went farther and asked the question, "Should armed officers even be aboard airplanes?".

Now people are supposed to be able to tell if someone is actually crazy or just missed pill time when they go off their rocker.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but then we have to apply blame to everyone but the fuckheads who actually created the problems in the first place.

I think it should stand as a lesson to everyone not to go screwing around in public places, and if you have family on medication, see that they take it as scheduled.

End of story...

[Ally_Kat]

Originally posted by ELVIS
Here's Alpizar...

I loved him in Law and Order.










Come on. You know he looks like him.

[Nickdfresh]

This is starting to get complicated and ugly...

Passengers describe wife's desperation
Man suffered from bipolar disorder, relative says

Thursday, December 8, 2005; Posted: 11:53 a.m. EST (16:53 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Witnesses aboard an American Airlines jetliner say that Rigoberto Alpizar's wife pursued him, saying he was mentally ill, just before federal marshals shot and killed him. Air marshals said Alpizar had announced he was carrying a bomb.

Later, no explosives were found. The incident remains under investigation.

"She was chasing after him," said fellow passenger Alan Tirpak. "She was just saying her husband was sick, her husband was sick." When the woman returned, "she just kept saying the same thing over and over, and that's when we heard the shots."

Another passenger, Mary Gardner of Orlando, said she also overheard Alpizar's wife. "I heard her say, 'He's bipolar. He doesn't have his medicine,'" Gardner recalled.

Ellen Sutliff, who said she sat near Alpizar, described him as agitated, even before he boarded the plane. His wife kept coaxing him, "We just have to get through customs. Please, please help me get through this," according to Sutliff.

"We're going to be home soon, and everything will be all right," Sutliff quoted the wife as saying. (Watch passengers describe the tension in the cabin -- 1:42)

Alpizar's mother-in-law told CNN affiliate WKMG that he suffered from bipolar disorder.

Accounts vary on whether Alpizar had announced he had a bomb.

Tirpak said he didn't hear Alpizar say anything.

Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, said Alpizar had run up and down the plane's aisle yelling, "I have a bomb in my bag."

Adams said Alpizar fled the aircraft when marshals confronted him on the boarding bridge.

"They asked the gentleman, 'Drop your bag, drop your bag. Come to the ground. I'm a federal law enforcement officer. Police. Drop your bag,'" Adams told CNN.

"He failed to comply with their commands, continued approaching the air marshals claiming he had a bomb in his bag. And then they ordered him again down to the ground. He didn't."

The marshals fired two or three shots when Alpizar appeared to reach into his bag, Adams said.

"Based on their training they had to take the appropriate action to diffuse the situation to prevent a danger to themselves and also passengers in the terminal," Adams said.

One law enforcement source said the backpack had drawn attention, because Alpizar wore it over his chest, not his back.

It was the first time a federal air marshal fired a weapon at someone since the program was bolstered after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The two marshals who fired at Alpizar were placed on administrative leave pending the investigation, the air marshal service said.

The agency said Alpizar was not on any terror watch lists.
Marshals on plane

Gardner said that before the shooting, a fight broke out between the Alpizars. She said she was comforted after an airline pilot seated beside her said air marshals were on the plane and aware of the situation.

Gardner said the situation became more tense when the wife received a phone call on the plane.

"There was something going on that just was not right, and the pilot told me, he said ... 'Look, there's a marshal right there, they know what's going on. We're covered.'

"So we all felt fine, and then, of course, everything happened."

Alpizar ran off the plane clutching a bag, chased by a man in a Hawaiian shirt, passenger Mike Beshears told CNN. That man turned out to be one of the two air marshals.

Beshears said he did not hear Alpizar say anything. "He just was in a hurry and exited the plane," he said.

Alpizar's wife also followed him part of the way down the aisle, then returned to her seat saying, her husband was sick and she needed to get his bags, Beshears said.

"After she passed back toward her seat ... a number of shots rang out -- at least five, up to six, shots rang out. And I saw the flight attendants returning, running down first class toward coach, and we were all told, 'Get down, get down.'

"The gentleman's wife had made it back up," Beshears recalled. "And about the time she got to the row in which we were crouched, the flight attendant -- I have to commend her on the way she handled the situation -- she actually intercepted the lady and took her down in the aisle with myself and a guy."

Marshals entered the plane and ordered everyone to put their hands on their heads, while they searched it, Gardner said.

After the shooting, investigators took passengers' luggage off the plane, and an explosives team blew open Alpizar's luggage on the tarmac. A subsequent search of Alpizar's backpack and luggage aboard the aircraft turned up no sign of a bomb, Bauer said.
Neighbors recall Alpizar as the guy next door

Alpizar, a U.S. citizen, had boarded American Airlines Flight 924 in Miami to fly to Orlando, Florida. The 44-year-old Maitland, Florida, resident had just connected from a flight from Ecuador.

Neighbors and family described him as a nice guy and said the image that federal marshals painted of him was at odds with the man they knew. (Full story)

A neighbor, Janice Tweedie, called Alpizar "very friendly and helpful to people around the neighborhood ... a very pleasant person, he and his wife both."

"I've never seen any erratic behavior from him at all," Tweedie said.

Alpizar moved to the United States from Costa Rica in 1986 and worked for Home Depot, his brother-in-law, Steven Buechner, told CNN. He said that Alpizar and his wife had been in South America since the day after Thanksgiving to help out her uncle, a volunteer dentist.

Buechner said the couple had no children and that he was unaware of any mental health issues Alpizar may have had.

[ELVIS]

Ok, I'm convinced...

It's a BCE assasination...

[FORD]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
Exhibit A

I'm pretty sure those are Ronnie Mc Donald's shoes from the last KISS tour when he played all of Ace's guitar parts.

[lesfunk]

If you have the balls or are crazy enough to run around an airliner yelling "Ive got a bomb!", You should have the balls or be crazy enough to take a bullet.

[FORD]

Marshals entered the plane and ordered everyone to put their hands on their heads, while they searched it, Gardner said.

Excuse me?? So they have the alleged suspect on the jetway, and they treat the rest of the plane like criminals??

This fucking stinks to high heaven.

[Warham]

Oh, FORD, please.

Have you ever heard of the word 'accomplice'?

[FORD]

Ok, this story makes it official.... This was a MASSIVE FUCKUP, and further evidence of what a FASCIST POLICE STATE this country is turning into.........

Thursday, Dec. 08, 2005
Eyewitness: "I Never Heard the Word 'Bomb'"
A passenger on Flight 924 gives his account of the shooting and says Rigoberto Alpizar never claimed to have a bomb
By SIOBHAN MORRISSEY/MIAMI

At least one passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924 maintains the federal air marshals were a little too quick on the draw when they shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar as he frantically attempted to run off the airplane shortly before take-off.

"I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy," says John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Fla. "He was getting off the plane." McAlhany also maintains that Alpizar never mentioned having a bomb.

"I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane," McAlhany told TIME in a telephone interview. "I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it."

When the incident began McAlhany was in seat 24C, in the middle of the plane. "[Alpizar] was in the back," McAlhany says, "a few seats from the back bathroom. He sat down." Then, McAlhany says, "I heard an argument with his wife. He was saying 'I have to get off the plane.' She said, 'Calm down.'"

Alpizar took off running down the aisle, with his wife close behind him. "She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder," McAlhany recalls. "I don't know if she said bipolar disorder [as one witness has alleged]. She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off the plane."

McAlhany described Alpizar as carrying a big backpack and wearing a fanny pack in front. He says it would have been impossible for Alpizar to lie flat on the floor of the plane, as marshals ordered him to do, with the fanny pack on. "You can't get on the ground with a fanny pack," he says. "You have to move it to the side."

By the time Alpizar made it to the front of the airplane, the crew had ordered the rest of the passengers to get down between the seats. "I didn't see him get shot," he says. "They kept telling me to get down. I heard about five shots."

McAlhany says he tried to see what was happening just in case he needed to take evasive action. "I wanted to make sure if anything was coming toward me and they were killing passengers I would have a chance to break somebody's neck," he says. "I was looking through the seats because I wanted to see what was coming.

"I was on the phone with my brother. Somebody came down the aisle and put a shotgun to the back of my head and said put your hands on the seat in front of you. I got my cell phone karate chopped out of my hand. Then I realized it was an official."

In the ensuing events, many of the passengers began crying in fear, he recalls. "They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground," he says "One little girl was crying. There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel."

McAlhany said he saw Alpizar before the flight and is absolutely stunned by what unfolded on the airplane. He says he saw Alpizar eating a sandwich in the boarding area before getting on the plane. He looked normal at that time, McAlhany says. He thinks the whole thing was a mistake: "I don't believe he should be dead right now."

link


So, not only did they shoot a man with a mental condition, and most probably LIE about his claiming to have a bomb, but they treated a plane full of US citizens like CRIMINALS and prevented them from speaking to their families???

This just crossed over into BCE FACIST BULLSHIT territory, kids.