Passengers did not hear "Bomb" before Air Marshalls shot man on Airplane

MIAMI (AP) - The passenger shot dead by air marshals in Miami had been agitated before boarding the plane and was singing Go Down Moses as his wife tried to calm him, a fellow passenger said Thursday.

"The wife was telling him: ’Calm down. Let other people get on the plane. It will be all right,"’ said Alan Tirpak. "I thought maybe he’s afraid of flying," Tirpak said. Tirpak took his seat and Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, and his wife eventually boarded the plane. Then, a few minutes before the plane was to pull away, Alpizar bolted up the aisle and onto the jetway, where two air marshals confronted him.

"He was belligerent. He threatened that he had a bomb in his backpack," said Brian Doyle, spokesman for the U.S. Homeland Security Department.

"The officers clearly identified themselves and yelled at him to ’get down, get down.’ Instead, he made a move toward the backpack."

Two passengers, however, said they did not hear Alpizar mention a bomb.

Agents are trained to shoot to stop a threat and the situation on the jetway at Miami International Airport Wednesday appeared to pose one, said John Amat, a deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Miami.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan also said Thursday the two air marshals appeared to have acted properly when they shot to kill.

Both air marshals were hired in 2002 from other U.S. government law-enforcement agencies and are now on administrative leave, as is routine, Doyle said. Miami-Dade Police were investigating the shooting and the medical examiner’s office was performing an autopsy on Alpizar. Officials said there was no bomb and they found no connection to terrorism.

Passenger John Mcalhany said Thursday that Alpizar bumped into him as he ran off the aircraft and he did not hear him say anything about a bomb.

"The first time I heard the word bomb was when I was interviewed by the FBI," McAlhany said.

"They kept asking if I heard him say the B-word. And I said: ’What is the B-word?’ And they were like: ’Bomb."’

"I said no. They said: ’Are you sure?"’

"And I am."

"This was wrong," McAlhany added.

"This man should be with his family for Christmas. Now he’s dead."

Mary Gardner, another passenger, also said Thursday she did not hear Alpizar mention a bomb.

A telephone message left with the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment late Thursday was not immediately returned. A person answering the phone at the Federal Air Marshals service said no one was available for after-hours comment and referred calls to Homeland Security.

Alpizar’s sister-in-law, Jeanne Jentsch, read a short statement from the family Thursday describing him as "a loving, gentle and caring husband, uncle, son and friend."

He was from Costa Rica but became a U.S. citizen several years ago, she said.

The statement did not address Alpizar’s mental condition. Other passengers have said Alpizar’s wife, Anne Buechner, said he was bipolar, a disorder also known as manic-depression.

She was yelling: "That’s my husband, that’s my husband - I need to get to my husband!" Gardner said.

"She said: ’My husband is bipolar. He didn’t take his medicine."’

Mike Beshears heard her say: "’My husband is sick. I’ve got to get my bags."’

Then the shots rang out, and a flight attendant stopped her and guided her to a seat, he said.

"She was very apologetic," Beshears said of Alpizar’s wife.

"She was explaining to us as we sat there in the row. She felt it was her fault, that she had convinced him to get on board, that he wasn’t ready."

Buechner did not speak publicly Thursday. She works for the Council on Quality and Leadership based in Towson, Md., a non-profit organization focused on improving life for people with disabilities and mental illness, the organization said in a statement.

Neighbours said the couple had been returning to their home in the Orlando suburb Maitland from a missionary trip to Ecuador.

Charles Baez, manager of the MAB Paints store in Orlando where Alpizar worked for 12 years until taking a job at Home Depot, described him as a health enthusiast who was always calm and patient with customers. He said he never saw evidence of any mental problems.

"He was a quiet, reserved gentleman," Baez said Thursday.

"It’s very bizarre to me that he would do anything like that."

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/051209/w120904.html