Witnesses in Miami Airport Shooting Differ on Whether Alpizar Made Bomb Threat
By John Holland, Brian Haas and Sean Gardiner
Sun-Sentinel.com

A troubled man, a tense standoff and only seconds to decide whether to shoot or wait. It's a difficult but common situation for police officers and others with a gun and a badge.

But when it plays out at a busy airport and an unarmed man ends up dead, shot by those hired specifically to make airlines and passengers safer, nothing is routine. Toss in fears of terrorism in the post-9-11 era, mental illness and threats of a bomb, and Wednesday's shooting by federal air marshals at Miami International Airport becomes heavily scrutinized.

So far, the investigation into Rigoberto Alpizar's final minutes aboard an American Airlines 757 that was to take off for Orlando is focusing on his wild rage and whether he said he had a bomb.

Federal officials from several agencies said Alpizar repeatedly made that claim and reached for a backpack, leaving the two air marshals little choice but to open fire on the jetway just outside the plane's doors.

Several of the 113 passengers who arrived in Orlando from Miami, however, said Alpizar may have been delusional and may have run out of the plane only because he feared a bomb was on board.

"I can tell you, he never said a thing in that airplane; he never called out he had a bomb," said passenger Jorge Borelli, an Orlando architect.

The task of sorting out exactly what happened falls mainly to the Miami-Dade Police Department, which is in charge of the homicide investigation. Miami-Dade police Lt. Veronica Ferguson issued a statement saying early indications point to Alpizar running frantically from the airplane "with a backpack strapped to his chest, yelling that he had a bomb."

Detective Juan Del Castillo said people on the plane other than the marshals also heard the bomb threats. Del Castillo said Alpizar's threats and the marshal's orders to him were all in English.

After running from the plane, Alpizar, 44, of Maitland, turned in the jetway, walked menacingly toward the agents and reached into his backpack, police said. Marshals stepped back before firing at Alpizar, who died at the scene, police said.

Police would not say whether he made the threats on the airplane, on the jetway or in both locations. The marshals, who were not identified, have been put on paid administrative leave until completion of the investigation.

What prompted Alpizar to become so unstable is also under investigation. His wife, Anne Buechner, told investigators he had bipolar disorder and hadn't taken his medication. The couple was in Ecuador doing church missionary work and had flown in from Ecuador about two hours earlier. They had just boarded the plane to Orlando for the final leg home.

Alpizar's friends and family in the Orlando area described him as a friendly, well-liked man who never had any problems.

"Rigo Alpizar was a loving, gentle and caring husband, uncle, brother, son and friend," Jeanne Jentsch, Buechner's sister, said in a brief statement at the family's home. "He was born in Costa Rica and became a proud American citizen several years ago. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him."

The shooting was the first since the current Federal Air Marshal Service program went into effect following the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackings and terrorist attacks. The exact number of marshals is classified, although officials acknowledge there are several thousand, assigned in groups of two to flights across the country.

All air marshals go through a seven-week course in Artesia, N.M., which includes a course called "managing abnormal behavior," according to Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle.

After that, they take a six-week course in Atlantic City, which involves training for various scenarios covering drunken passengers, terrorist threats, passengers who exhibit violent behavior and other situations, Doyle said.

Jim Bauer, special agent in charge of the air marshals' office in Miami, said the shooting was tragic for everyone involved but justified.

"This threat presented itself, and we believe it was necessary to use deadly force," Bauer said.

Bauer said the two air marshals had no contact with Alpizar until they overheard him threatening that he had a bomb. He said mental illness in this case is irrelevant.

"It really doesn't play into this at all. There's no time in making these split-second decisions to analyze their mental health," Bauer said. "It is truly an unfortunate event whether or not he was afflicted with any medical condition."

Officials with the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday that there is no indication that Alpizar acted irrationally before boarding the plane, as some passengers reported on Wednesday. Video cameras around Miami International Airport showed Alpizar acting normally, said TSA spokeswoman Lauren Stover.

In Costa Rica, the government called for an explanation from the United States, and President Abel Pacheco partly blamed American "paranoia" about terrorism. Meanwhile, Alpizar's brother had difficulty understanding why he was killed.

"They acted rashly," Carlos Alpizar said. "I will never accept that it was necessary to kill him as if he was some dangerous criminal. It is ironic that he adopted that country as his own, loved the U.S. as much as he loved Costa Rica, ... and still he was killed, mistaken for a terrorist."