Man Shot After Airport Bomb Claim
Air Marshal Shoots Passenger Who Said He Had Bomb; No Bomb Found
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Play CBS Video Video Air Marshal Shoots Passenger A man whose wife claimed he was mentally ill was shot and killed by a federal air marshal in Miami after he ran down the aisle of a plane shouting that he had a bomb. Bob Orr has more.
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Video Killed Passenger Ran CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports after federal marshals chased the passenger, he resisted orders and reached into a bag containing what he claimed to be a bomb.
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Video Air Marshal Kills Passenger A federal marshal shot and killed a person on a plane at Miami International Airport. Bob Orr reports that the passenger got up, started running through the plane screaming that he had an explosive.
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SWAT teams exit an American Airlines plane after the plane arrived from Colombia, while docked at Miami International Airport, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005. (AP)
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This copy of an undated family photo shows Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack who was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2005. (AP)
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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. (CBS)
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Mary Gardner, a passenger aboard the Orlando-bound flight, told WTVJ-TV 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!"
Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar — a mental illness also known as manic-depression — and had not had his medication.
Gardner said four to five shots were fired. She could not see the shooting.
After the shooting, police boarded the plane and told the passengers to put their hands on their heads, Gardner said.
"It was quite scary," she told the TV station via a cell phone. "They wouldn't let you move. They wouldn't let you get anything out of your bag."
Alpizar's brother-in-law, Steven Beuchner, said he was a native of Costa Rica, and met Beuchner's sister, Anne, when she was an exchange student there. Relatives said the couple had been married about two decades.
Neighbors described Alpizar as a pleasant man who worked in the paint department of a home-supply store and spent his spare time tending to the lawn of his ranch-style house. Many found it incomprehensible that he could have made a bomb threat.
"He was a nice guy, always smiling, always talkative," Louis Gunther said. "Everybody is talking about a guy I know nothing about."
Alex McLeod, 16, who lives three houses from the Alpizars, said: "This whole neighborhood is shocked. ... Totally uncharacteristic of the guy."
No one answered the door Wednesday evening at the Alpizars' modest, four-bedroom house on a tree-lined street in suburban Orlando. A car was in the driveway, and television crews milled about.
There were only 33 air marshals at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration hired thousands more afterward, but the exact number is classified.
Marshals fly undercover, and which planes they're on is a closely guarded secret. Until Wednesday, no marshal had fired a weapon, though they had been involved in scores of incidents.
Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who as chairman of the House aviation subcommittee was involved in the expansion of the air marshal service, called Wednesday's shooting "an unfortunate incident."
"Everyone's on edge because we view the biggest threat as explosives, or bombs," he said.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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