Posted on 12/08/2005 12:21:37 PM PST by Rennes Templar
A passenger on Flight 924 gives his account of the shooting and says Rigoberto Alpizar never claimed to have a bomb
By SIOBHAN MORRISSEY/MIAMI
At least one passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924 maintains the federal air marshals were a little too quick on the draw when they shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar as he frantically attempted to run off the airplane shortly before take-off.
"I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy," says John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Fla. "He was getting off the plane." McAlhany also maintains that Alpizar never mentioned having a bomb.
"I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane," McAlhany told TIME in a telephone interview. "I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it."
When the incident began McAlhany was in seat 24C, in the middle of the plane. "[Alpizar] was in the back," McAlhany says, "a few seats from the back bathroom. He sat down." Then, McAlhany says, "I heard an argument with his wife. He was saying 'I have to get off the plane.' She said, 'Calm down.'"
Alpizar took off running down the aisle, with his wife close behind him. "She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder," McAlhany recalls. "I don't know if she said bipolar disorder [as one witness has alleged]. She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off the plane."
McAlhany described Alpizar as carrying a big backpack and wearing a fanny pack in front. He says it would have been impossible for Alpizar to lie flat on the floor of the plane, as marshals ordered him to do, with the fanny pack on. "You can't get on the ground with a fanny pack," he says. "You have to move it to the side."
By the time Alpizar made it to the front of the airplane, the crew had ordered the rest of the passengers to get down between the seats. "I didn't see him get shot," he says. "They kept telling me to get down. I heard about five shots."
McAlhany says he tried to see what was happening just in case he needed to take evasive action. "I wanted to make sure if anything was coming toward me and they were killing passengers I would have a chance to break somebody's neck," he says. "I was looking through the seats because I wanted to see what was coming.
"I was on the phone with my brother. Somebody came down the aisle and put a shotgun to the back of my head and said put your hands on the seat in front of you. I got my cell phone karate chopped out of my hand. Then I realized it was an official."
In the ensuing events, many of the passengers began crying in fear, he recalls. "They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground," he says "One little girl was crying. There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel."
McAlhany said he saw Alpizar before the flight and is absolutely stunned by what unfolded on the airplane. He says he saw Alpizar eating a sandwich in the boarding area before getting on the plane. He looked normal at that time, McAlhany says. He thinks the whole thing was a mistake: "I don't believe he should be dead right now."
"WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE HIS MEDICINE??"
The way it sounds is that he did not "have" his medication not that he did not take it. The guy apparently knew he needed his meds and did not have them available. Possibly that had to do with him going to South America.. sometimes stuff happens and you could run out of or lose youre medication, anything can happen and if you can't replace it, you're absolute screwed.
The article this morning in our local rag (South Florida Sun-Sentinal) said the guy said he had a bomb, but didn't say who said that. They said it as if it were a fact, and didn't indicate anyone had said anything different. I realize this may mean only the air marshalls said it, but it does leave one with the impression that witnesses said it as well.
susie
"They didn' never have to killed him, they could have shoot to wound."
Shoot to wound...and then have him push the button to detonate a bomb? This isn't the Wild Bill Hitchcock Show where the marksman shoots a cigar out of your mouth. Where should they have shot him, left scrotum? Right pinkie finger?
Shoot to kill and then move on.
Well, I admit, I don't know what they knew, or what they were thinking. You seem to know different. That's what I was pointing out.
susie
"However it is just possible someone may have decided to CYA sweeten the event with "he claimed he had a bomb". "
Yesterday I would've disagreed with you, but with the facts that are coming out today I can certainly entertain that thought. I will continue to do so until somebody who's check is not signed by the feds says "I heard him say he had a bomb"
"Bogus if indeed his wife was attempting to explain his behavior was due to no meds."
And with women now blowing themselves up, how did the marshall not know that this might have been a husband/wife team?
It's doubtful that in the post 9/11 world that a person could control a plane with the threat of a bomb.
My point is that the tactical situation is very different when the plane is in the air as opposed to sitting on the ground at the gate.
Katie Couric
Saying that the marshals had to make a judgment within seconds and their options were very limited is a revelation to you?
It is pointless talking to you. The only thing I have figured out by reading your posts is you are loathe to be wrong. So, hey, you can be right. I will concede. Do you feel better now?
susie
If she said, "calm down", it isn't unreasonable to think he could hear the conversation from 40 feet away as you allege.
Jeff - Some of them are smart lunatics and some of them are just lunatics...i.e.shoe bomber.
It is pointless talking to you. The only thing I have figured out by reading your posts is you are loathe to be wrong. I've yet to figure out what you're disagreement is.
This thread is filled with wild theories about what was going through the minds of the marshals and when I point out that it's not logical, you ask me how I can know what went through their mind. Why don't you ask that question to the ones spitting out the theories right and left?
very true
"and as he lay wounded, he manages to push the button and the bomb goes off, and people would be saying he shoulda been shot dead.. amazing how hindsight is 20/20 with people.."
You know that if Bush had not invaded Iraq and we were attacked again the RAT party would be screaming that he should have attacked Iraq since they were obviously such a threat.
Howlin, I'm afraid there are people so starved for attention, to be famous even as a footnote, that it is their (nearly) first thought.
imagine having your 15 minutes, then being known as "whatzisname" ??
How relevant is it that he is running to get off the plane to whether he has a bomb? Could it be in the overhead compartment and he's going to detonate as he gets off? Just not sure why that is a factor.
"He came on a plane from Ecquador."
Ughh! Hope it cleaned it up.
"The marshals were only chasing him because he was running off the plane. They weren't chasing him because they caught him in the act of trying to detonate."
Really? Were you on the plane too or just The Great Carnec?
How dense are you. The feds have reported that there was no bomb on the plane. How could he have tried to detonate a bomb that didn't exist?
Seriously, I'm starting to worry about some of you guys.
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