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Air marshal kills passenger in Miami

MIAMI — The war on terror spilled over into South Florida on Wednesday with a tragic result when a federal air marshal shot and killed an unarmed American citizen on a jetway at Miami International Airport after the man reportedly claimed he was carrying a bomb in his back pack.

No explosives were found.

Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, was shot as he reportedly ran from American Airlines Flight 924, bound for Orlando, trying to "evade" the two air marshals aboard the Boeing 757, said James Bauer, special agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals office in Miami.

"He was holding a back pack and he uttered a threat he had a bomb," Bauer said.

Alpizar lived in the Orlando suburb of Maitland and worked at a Home Depot.

It was the first time since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that federal air marshals shot a passenger or suspect.

Alpizar boarded the Boeing 757 around 2:10 p.m. and fellow passengers said he was acting erratically. One passenger said Alpizar frantically ran down the aisle of the plane, while his wife ran after him, yelling that he was mentally ill and did not take his medication. Authorities would not confirm that report.

Alpizar's brother-in-law, Steven Buechner, called Wednesday's shooting "a huge mistake."

"He would never do anything to hurt anyone," said Buechner, of Milwaukee, Wis. "This is something so brand-new to us, like a slap in the face. He was a really great guy who worked hard."

Alpizar, originally from Costa Rica, moved to the United States in 1986.

Buechner said he had been trying to contact his sister "to see how she is, and figure out what our next step will be. [Alpizar] treated my sister like a queen. He loved her to death. He was all I could ever want in a sibling."

The couple had no children.

The FBI said it continues to investigate the incident, but Bauer said, "There's no reason to believe right now that there is any nexus to terrorism, or that indeed any other events are associated with this one."

Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said Alpizar was killed after he did not comply with an order to get on the ground and then reached into his back pack.

Just before the shooting, passengers reported seeing the man running wildly down the aisle of the plane with a woman in pursuit yelling that he was "sick." Passenger John McAlhany, in seat 24-C, said the man "came running from the back. He must have been doing 1,000 miles an hour. He knocked over stewardesses."

McAlhany, a Sebastian, Fla., construction worker on his way home from a fishing trip in the Keys, noticed the man acting erratically during the boarding process. "When we got on the plane, he got off, then came back on with his wife," McAlhany said. "He didn't look stable."

Mary Gardner told WTVJ-TV of Miami that she heard four or five shots. Authorities would not confirm the number.

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 station via cellphone. "They wouldn't let you move. They wouldn't let you get anything out of your bag."

The Orlando-bound flight was subsequently canceled, according to the Orlando airport's Web site. American Airline executives said the passengers eventually were allowed to go on other flights to Orlando.

"None of the other 113 passengers onboard were affected or were ever in any danger. This was an isolated incident," the airline said in a press release.

The airport was never closed. Air traffic continued as usual by mid-afternoon.

Police spread the passengers' bags that were to be loaded onto the flight on the tarmac and had dogs sniff them for explosives. They blew up two bags belonging to Alpizar on the tarmac as a precaution.

There were only 33 air marshals at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration hired thousands more afterward, though the exact number is classified.

Homeland Security Department's Inspector General's Office found that some air marshals cleared to be hired should have been disqualified, according to a September 2004 story in Aviation Week and Space Technology.

The IG report disclosed that 104 people hired from the federal Bureau of Prisons were involved in 155 separate cases of misconduct in their former jobs. Violations include physically abusing an inmate, misuse of government property and falling asleep on the job.

John Pacenti and Kevin Deutsch write for The Palm Beach Post. Post researcher Melanie Mena, The Miami Herald and The Associated Press contributed to this story.