'Bi-polar' threat man shot dead

'Bi-polar' threat man shot dead
From: Reuters From correspondents in Miami, Florida
December 08, 2005

Threat ... officials set up a perimeter around the plane / AP THE man who fled a plane following a bomb threat and was shot dead by a US air marshal may have been mentally ill, it has been reported.

The 44-year-old US citizen was shot and killed on the jetway between the plane and the terminal at Miami International Airport.

A passenger on the plane has claimed she heard the shooting victim's wife say the man was bi-polar and was off his medication.

Miami Police have confirmed the man, Rigoberto Alpizar, was carrying a backpack and travelling with a woman, believed to be his wife.

He reportedly made a bomb threat and fled the plane, running up the jetway "crazily", according to one witness.

Police have now confirmed Alpizar's possessions did not contain explosives and no terrorism links were suspected.

"There were no explosives," said James Bauer, who heads the US air marshals' office in Miami.
"There's no reason to believe right now that there is any nexus to terrorism of any other events associated with this one," Mr Bauer said at a news conference a few hours after the shooting.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle told Miami's WSVN television station air marshals assigned to the flight took "appropriate action".

"A passenger claimed to have a bomb aboard in a carry-on bag. At that point an air marshal team confronted the individual aboard the aircraft," he said.

"The passenger immediately exited the aircraft through the jetway, heading back toward the terminal. The air marshal team pursued the subject into the jetway and ordered the subject to get down the ground.

"The passenger appeared to be reaching for a carry-on bag ... the air marshals took appropriate action ... shots were fired," Mr Doyle said.

The Costa Rican man held US citizenship, and had flown in from Ecuador.

It is the most serious security incident on a flight in the US since aviation laws were tightened following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washingtons on September 11, 2001.

Police and SWAT intervention teams immediately surrounded AA Flight 924 that had just arrived from the Colombian city of Medellin and had been scheduled go on to the Florida city of Orlando.

Mary Gardner, a passenger on the flight, said the man ran screaming down the aisle and a woman followed behind him, yelling "my husband, my husband," the WTVJ station report.

"I did hear the lady say her husband was bi-polar and had not had his medication," Ms Gardner said.

"I saw the woman, I think she was English-speaking, blonde hair, she was hysterical," she said.

"He started running crazily through the aisle," Ms Gardner added, "he was running like he was frantic, his arms flailing in the air."

This was thought to be the first time an air marshal has fired weapon on or near a plane, said Joseph Gutheinz, a former military pilot and lawyer who has worked in aviation security.

"I believe this is the first time they've ever discharged a weapon. I am 100 per cent sure they have never had an incident like this before," he said.

A Miami International Airport spokesman said Concourse D had been evacuated but the incident did not affect incoming or outgoing flights. It was reopened shortly after 3pm (7am AEDT).

With Agence-France Presse and Reuters

Link Here