http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10367598/
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 frantically from a jetliner that was boarding for take off, officials said. No bomb was found.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said the dead passenger was a 44-year-old U.S. citizen. NBC News’ Pete Williams said an official identified the man as Rigoberto Alpizar.
It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at a passenger or suspect, he said. A witness said that the man frantically 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, Doyle 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 bag, Doyle said.
Flight 924, which originated in Quito, Ecuador, had arrived in Miami just after noon, and the shooting occurred shortly after 2 p.m. 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 Miami earlier in the day from Ecuador, authorities said.
After the shooting, investigators spread passengers’ bags on the tarmac and 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 air,” she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, “My husband! My husband!”
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 conference 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 illness 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 possible terrorist threats at airports throughout the country, but no threats were found.
“There is no nexus to terrorism,” Bauer said.
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 vacation as a missionary trip.
“We're all still in shock. 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.”
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, praised the air marshals’ actions.
“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.”
Air Marshals are trained to shoot to kill. They have the most stringent small-arms training standards among law enforcement agencies.
There were only 32 air marshals at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration hired thousands more afterward, though the exact number is classified."