MIAMI – A troubled man, a tense standoff and only seconds to decide whether to shoot or wait. It’s a difficult but common situation for police officers and others with a gun and a badge.
But when it plays out at a busy airport and a troubled man winds up dead, shot by those hired specifically to make airlines and passengers safer, nothing is routine. Toss in fears of terrorism, mental illness and threats of a bomb, and Wednesday’s shooting by Federal Air Marshals becomes one of the most scrutinized in the post-Sept. 11 era.
So far the investigation into Rigoberto Alpizar’s final minutes aboard an American Airlines 757 that was to take off for Orlando, Fla., is focusing on his wild rage and whether he said he had a bomb. Federal officials from several agencies said Alpizar repeatedly made that claim and reached for a backpack, leaving the two air marshals little choice but to open fire on the jetway just outside the plane’s doors.
Several of the 113 passengers who arrived in Orlando from Miami, however, said Alpizar may have been delusional and ran out of the plane only because he feared a bomb was on board.
The task of sorting out exactly what happened falls mainly to the Miami-Dade Police department, which is in charge of the homicide investigation. Miami-Dade Police Lt. Veronica Ferguson issued a statement saying early indications point to Alpizar running frantically from the airplane “with a backpack strapped to his chest, yelling that he had a bomb.”
Detective Juan Del Castillo said people on the plane other than the marshals also heard the bomb threats. Del Castillo said Alpizar’s threats and the marshal’s orders to him were all in English.
After running off the plane, Alpizar, 44 of Maitland, Fla., turned in the jetway, walked menacingly toward the agents and reached into his backpack, police said. Marshal’s stepped back before firing at Alpizar, who died at the scene, police said.
Police would not say whether he made the threats on the airplane, out on the jetway or in both locations. The marshals, who were not identified, have been put on paid administrative leave pending a full investigation.
What prompted Alpizar to become so unstable is also under investigation, although his wife, Anne Buechner, told investigators he had bipolar disorder and hadn’t taken his medication. The couple was in Ecuador doing church missionary work and had flown in from Ecuador about two hours earlier. They had just boarded the plane to Orlando for the final leg home.
Alpizar’s friends and family in the Orlando area described him as a friendly, well-liked man who never had any problems.
“Rigo Alpizar was a loving, gentle and caring husband, uncle, brother, son and friend,” Jeanne Jentsch, Buechner’s sister, said in a brief statement at the family’s home. “He was born in Costa Rica and became a proud American citizen several years ago. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.”
The shooting was the first since the current U.S. Air Marshal program went into effect following the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings and terrorist attacks. The exact number of marshals is classified, although officials acknowledge there are several thousand who are assigned in groups of two to flights across the country.
According to Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle, all air marshals go through a seven-week course in Artesia, N.M., which includes a course called “managing abnormal behavior.”
After that, they take a six-week course in Atlantic City, which involves training for various scenarios covering everything from drunken passengers, terrorist threats, passengers who exhibit violent behavior and other situations, Doyle said.
Jim Bauer, special agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshal’s Miami office, said the shooting was tragic for everyone involved but justified.
“This threat presented itself, and we believe it was necessary to use deadly force,” Bauer said.
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Bauer said the two air marshals had no contact with Alpizar until they overheard him threatening that he had a bomb. He said mental illness in this case is irrelevant.
“It really doesn’t play into this at all. There’s no time in making these split-second decisions to analyze their mental health,” Bauer said. “It is truly an unfortunate event whether or not he was afflicted with any medical condition.”
Officials with the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday that there is no indication that Alpizar acted irrationally before boarding the plane, as some passengers had reported a day earlier. Video cameras located around Miami International Airport showed Alpizar acting normally, said TSA spokeswoman Lauren Stover.
But Alpizar’s actions after boarding are in dispute, according to some passengers.
Orlando architect Jorge A. Borrelli said was sitting in the ninth row when he first noticed Alpizar and Buechner.
“He was running down the aisle of the airplane. He was knocking into people who happened to be in the aisle,” Borrelli said. “He wasn’t doing it maliciously. He appeared to be a guy who really needed to get off the plane fairly quick because he either forgot something or because … he was sick.”
Borrelli described Anne Buechner as embarrassed and flustered. But he never heard Alpizar make any threats or mention he had a bomb.
“I can tell you, he never said a thing in that airplane, he never called out he had a bomb,” Borrelli said.
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