Terror on the Tarmac
By Denise Best | Related entries in In The News, The War On TerrorismBy now you’ve most probably have heard about the incident in the Miami airport yesterday.
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 takeoff, officials said. No bomb was found.
It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said. Another federal official said there was no apparent link to terrorism.
According to a witness, the passenger ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.
The passenger, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.
There will be an extensive investigation, as there should be with any incident where firearms have been discharged.
While it is indeed a tragic situation, the threat was definitely real, and the issue of whether a bomb was or wasn’t found should not be the overriding consideration in determining if the marshals’ actions were appropriate.
It’ll be interesting to see where the spin takes this story over the next few days.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2005 and is filed under In The News, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 8th, 2005 at 10:42 am
I’ve seen very little spin from either side so far on this, which is refreshing. It was a tragedy, mainly because the guy hadn’t taken his medicine and had a psychotic episode on the plane.
Did this episode remind anyone of the plumber who was shot in London a few weeks back? From witness accounts this case seems to have been more clearly justified, but I couldn’t help but make the association.
December 8th, 2005 at 11:47 am
This certainly seems justified to me. I’m afraid that it won’t be long before people start pissing and moaning “because he was mentally ill”. They’ll probably bitch louldy enough so that all federal air marshalls are thrown in prison. Sorry if I seem a little cynical, but it does seem that the less common sense the left shows, the more likely the government is to respond to it.