www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10367598
US Security Air marshal fatally shoots man at Miami airport Sources say 44-year-old US man claimed to have bomb in his carry-on Image: Rigoberto Alpizar MSNBC TV Rigoberto Alpizar was fatally shot after claiming he had a bomb in his ca rry-on bag. NBC News and news services 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 f rantically from a jetliner that was boarding for take off, officials sai d No bomb was found. Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said the dead passenge r was a 44-year-old US citizen. NBC News' Pete Williams said an offici al identified the man as Rigoberto Alpizar. A witness said that the man fra ntically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757 and that a woman with him said he was mentally ill. The passenger was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Do yle said. The marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground, but the man did not comply and was shot when apparently reaching into the ba g, Doyle said. Flight 924, which originated in Quito, Ecuador, had arrived in Miami just after noon, and the shooting occurred shortly after 2 pm as the plane was about to take off for Orlando with the man and 119 other passengers and crew, American spokesman Tim Wagner said. Alpizar had arrived in Mi ami earlier in the day from Ecuador, authorities said. After the shooting, investigators spread passengers' bags on the tarmac a nd let dogs sniff them for explosives, and bomb squad members blew up at least two bags. NBC News confirmed that authorities searching the man's carry-on backpack did not find a bomb. Passenger Mary Gardner told WTVJ in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the a ir," she said. NBC said the woman's name was Ann Buechner, and the couple, who had been married for almost 20 years, lived in Maitland, Fla. David Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshals, said in a press co nference the air marshals asked the passenger twice to drop his bag and put his hands on his head. "The air marshals discharged their weapons" when the man failed to comply with them a second time, Adams said. Man reportedly bipolar Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar, a mental il lness formerly known as manic-depression, and had not had his medication . James Bauer, head of the Miami Federal Air Marshal field office, said the incident appears isolated. Air marshals were assigned to check for poss ible terrorist threats at airports throughout the country, but no threa ts were found. Federal officials declined to say how many times Alpizar was shot. Relatives said Alpizar had been on a working vacation in Peru. A neighbor who said he had been asked to watch the couple's home described the vac ation as a missionary trip. We're just speechless," said Kelley Beuchner, a sister-in-law. Martin Gonzalez, spokesman for Colombia's civil aviation agency, said the flight had "left normally with no problems." "Air marshals put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe," he said. "Thanks to the efforts of an alert air marshal, an individual was prevented from causing a potentially dangerous situation on the American Airlines flight that could have harmed passengers and crew members." They have the most stringent s mall-arms training standards among law enforcement agencies. There were only 32 air marshals at the time of the Sept. The Bush administration hired thousands more afterward, though the exact num ber is classified. com's Brock Meeks and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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