Eyewitnesses refute official story in fatal shooting of passenger at Miami airpo

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Sat, 10 Dec 2005 13:46:14 -0500

Eyewitnesses refute official story in fatal shooting of

passenger at Miami airport

 

 

 

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/miam-d10.shtml

 

 

 

Eyewitnesses refute official story in fatal shooting of passenger at

Miami airport

By Kate Randall

10 December 2005

 

In the days since Rigoberto Alpizar was shot and killed while fleeing

an American Airlines flight in Miami, no credible evidence has

materialized to back the claim by government authorities that the

44-year-old Costa Rican immigrant said he was carrying a bomb in the

moments before federal marshals opened fire.

 

Alpizar was shot dead on Wednesday by air marshals in the jetway of AA

Flight 757 after exiting the aircraft. Law enforcement agents blew up

Alpizar's luggage on the tarmac, confirming he was carrying no

explosives or other weapons. (See: " Miami airplane shooting:

Washington's `war on terrorism' comes home " ).

 

The official version of events, promoted by the Bush administration

and the media in the immediate aftermath, is that this state killing

of an innocent man was justified by the " war on terror. " The central

assertion to back up this claim is that Alpizar said he had a bomb,

and that this posed a terrorist threat. Dave Adams, a spokesman for

the Federal Air Marshal Service, explicitly told the press that

Alpizar had " run up and down the aisle yelling, `I have a bomb in my

bag.' "

 

However, no witnesses—including from among the more than 100

passengers and crew members on board the flight—have come forward

publicly to back up this allegation. Instead, numerous passengers have

directly contradicted it, even after hours of interrogation and

prodding by police authorities in the wake of the shooting.

 

Witnesses to the killing relate that the extremely agitated man

attempted to get off the flight, followed by his wife, who called out

that her husband was sick and had not taken his medication. Alpizar's

wife, Anne Buechner, has since said that her husband suffered from

bipolar disorder (or manic depression) and had not recently taken his

medication.

 

Passenger Alan Tirpak, 31, who was seated near the front of the

aircraft, told the New York Daily News, " He didn't say anything as far

as I could hear. " Tirpak said he heard the man's wife yelling to the

marshals that he was " very sick, " before hearing shots ring out

outside the plane's door.

 

Another passenger, Mary Gardner, told Associated Press, " I did not

hear him say that he had a bomb. " She also said she heard Mrs.

Buechner say of her husband, " He's bipolar. He doesn't have his medicine. "

 

The Orlando Sentinel interviewed seven passengers who said Alpizar was

silent as he bolted past them. " One thought he had taken the wrong

flight. Another thought he was going to throw up, " the Sentinel reported.

 

Jorge A. Borrelli, an Orlando architect, stated, " I can tell you, he

never said a thing in that airplane. He never called out he had a

bomb. He never said a word from the point he passed me at Row 9.... He

did not say a word to anybody. "

 

Borrelli said that Alpizar's wife tried to reach her husband: " She was

saying, `My husband's sick. He's sick. He's bipolar. He didn't take

his medicine. It was my fault. I made him get on the plane. You know,

we just came from a medical mission. Oh, my God! They've killed my

husband!' "

 

Jorge Figueroa, a power-plant operator seated a few rows behind first

class, told the Sentinel, " He wasn't saying anything; he was just

running. I said to myself, `It is probably a person who took the wrong

plane.' "

 

Two teenagers seated in Row 26 concurred that Alpizar had said nothing

as he ran down the aisle.

 

John McAlhany, 44, was seated near Alpizar and his wife toward the

rear of the plane when the incident unfolded. He told the Daily News,

" There was no bomb threat. I never heard anything about a bomb. "

McAlhany added, " I heard him saying to his wife, `I've got to get off

the plane.' He bumped me, bumped a couple of stewardesses. He just

wanted to get off the plane. "

 

The treatment of the plane's passengers following the shooting was of

a piece with the violence meted out to Alpizar. Armed federal marshals

and police agents stormed the aircraft and ordered them to put their

hands on their heads. Terrified passengers were told to remain

motionless for more than an hour, and some reported having guns put to

the backs of their heads.

 

After they were taken off the plane, with their hands still on their

heads, they were questioned for hours by police officials, including

officers from the Miami-Dade police and the Federal Bureau of

Investigation. The last passenger was not released until nine hours

after the event.

 

Despite the fact that no evidence had been found to indicate Alpizar's

actions had anything to do with terrorism, the passengers were grilled

about whether they had heard him speak of a bomb. Anne Buechner, whose

husband of 18 years had just been shot down in cold blood, was also

questioned for hours before being released.

 

McAlhany, interviewed by AP, said, " The first time I heard the word

`bomb' was when I was interviewed by the FBI. 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. "

 

It is significant that after nine hours of such questioning, no one

has come forward to corroborate the Federal Air Marshal Service's

claim that Alpizar said he had a bomb. The obvious explanation is that

the entire bomb threat story is a lie, most likely invented by the

perpetrators immediately after the shooting to provide themselves with

an alibi.

 

This lack of evidence, however, has not deterred the federal

authorities and the Bush administration from praising the performance

of the marshals. On the contrary, in the immediate aftermath of the

state killing—and before any investigation into the incident—White

House spokesman Scott McClellan commented, " These marshals appear to

have acted in a way that's consistent with the extensive training that

they have received. "

 

Air marshals spokesman Dave Adams commented on the shooting, " In this

situation here, this was textbook, " because the marshals believed

there was " an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury. "

 

Neither the Bush administration nor the Federal Air Marshal Service

has offered condolences or an apology to Alpizar's family. In fact,

the general consensus, among both federal authorities and the media,

is that the gruesome episode proves that after the long wait since the

September 11 attacks, the " war on terror " is " working " —someone has

finally been killed. Television broadcasts reported the shooting with

an air of satisfaction—and the fantastic claim that passengers would

now feel safer when they flew!

 

The incident has shown that the thousands of federal marshals riding

on US aircraft operate under a shoot-to-kill policy. John Amat,

national operations vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement

Officers Association, who is also a deputy with the US Marshals

Service in Miami, said that shooting to maim or injure is not an

option in such situations: " The person was screaming, saying he would

blow up the plane, reaching into his bag—they had to react. "

 

Alpizar's family has not bought the authorities' justifications for

his death. In a telephone interview from Costa Rica with the Orlando

Sentinel, his brother Carlos Alpizar said, " With all the advances that

the US has supposedly made in the war against terrorism, I can't

conceive that the marshals wouldn't be able to overpower an unarmed,

single man, especially knowing he had already cleared every security

check. "

 

He added, " I will never accept that it was necessary to kill him as if

he was some dangerous criminal. And I want to make this distinction:

He did not die. He was killed. "

 

 

 

 

 

See Also:

Miami airplane shooting: Washington's 'war on terrorism' comes home

[9 December 2005]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/shot-d09.shtml

 

Britain: government lies exposed over de Menezes murder

[18 August 2005]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/lies-a18.shtml

 

Police gun down worker in London subway: another tragic consequence of

Blair's war policy

[25 July 2005]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/lond-j25.shtml