This diary is intended as an aid to further reporting on the shooting of Rigoberto Alpizar by federal Air Marshals on 12/7/05. The shooting took place at Gate D42 at Miami International Airport on or about the jetway as Mr. Alpizar was exiting American Airlines Flight 492, bound for Orlando (
see seating 757-200).
Public passenger statements:
1) John McAlhany - Seat 24C (21C?)
"I never heard the word 'bomb' on 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." - Time Magazine
2)
Alan Tirpak, 'seated two rows behind first class [row 9-10?] -
AP
Tirpak said he didn't hear Alpizar say anything. - CNN
Re: Alpizar's wife: "She was just saying her husband was sick, her husband was sick," said passenger Alan Tirpak. When the woman returned, "she just kept saying the same thing over and over, and that's when we heard the shots." - CNN
3) Mary Gardner, '3 rows behind first class' - see sidebar
"I did not hear him say that he had a bomb." - AP
[Alpizar's wife] was yelling ``That's my husband, that's my husband _ I need to get to my husband!'' as Alpizar ran toward the front of the plane, Gardner said. - AP
4) Jorge Borelli, row 9?
"I heard very clearly, 'Stop!' and about four to six gunshots," Borrelli said. "At that point the flight attendants started screaming, 'Get down! Get down!'"
"And she said to the small group of us kind of huddled around her, holding her, that -- I believe she said -- that he feared there was a bomb on the plane....I think he was having a panic attack." - Orlando Sentinel
A Central Florida man is trying to set the record straight. He said that Rigoberto Alpizar never shouted that he had a bomb. In fact, he said, he didn't say anything. The local traveler heard and saw the whole thing unfold and doesn't like how it's been depicted.
"I saw the air marshal with his gun, in the doorway, halfway in the plane, halfway out and he kept scanning the plane as well," Jorge Borelli said.
He had a great view of the air marshal on the aisle, nine rows back. "He appeared very agitated and very nervous. He was obviously one of the air marshal's that shot the gentleman," Borelli said.
* * *
"I want the truth to be known and it frustrates me to read that he was running down the plane, flailing and screaming that he had a bomb. That is not the case," he said.
Instead, he saw a hurried Alpizar, followed by his wife shouting he was bi-polar in an apologetic tone. When she turned back for the luggage, Borelli heard gunshots in the jetway.
"The gunshots were toy sounding. It was like pop, pop, pop," he said, followed by screaming to get down. Borelli and a doctor on board had to hold Rigoberto's frantic wife back.
"She kept saying, 'They've shot him, they've shot him, they killed my husband.' She wanted to get up and I wouldn't let her because I was worried they would shoot her, quite honestly. It was a very, very tense moment," he said.
But the fact, things were not at all tense as Alpizar was leaving the plane prove Borelli's point. "If someone would've said there's a bomb on the plane, I think people would've run. I think people would've jumped up and reacted," he said. - WFTV ABC/Orlando
``He was running down the aisle of the airplane. He was knocking into people who happened to be in the aisle,'' Borelli said. ``He wasn't doing it maliciously. He appeared to be a guy who really needed to get off the plane fairly quick because he either forgot something or because ... he was sick.''
Borelli described Anne Buechner as embarrassed and flustered. But he never heard Alpizar make any threats or mention he had a bomb.
``I can tell you, he never said a thing in that airplane, he never called out he had a bomb,'' Borelli said. - South Florida Sun Sentinel
5) Mike Beshears - first row of coach
Beshears recalled Alpizar running off the plane clutching a bag, chased by a man in a Hawaiian shirt. That man turned out to be one of the two air marshals. Like Tirpak, Beshears said he did not hear Alpizar say anything. "He just was in a hurry and exited the plane," he said.
After Alpizar ran off the plane, his wife pursued him part of the way down the aisle, then returned to her seat saying her husband was sick and she needed to get his bags, Beshears said. "After she passed back toward her seat ... a number of shots rang out -- at least five, up to six, shots rang out," Beshears recalled. - CNN
According to Beshears, a 48-year-old IT project manager from the Orlando suburb of Winter Garden, the incident began shortly before the last passengers had taken their seats. Alpizar ran up the aisle, barreling into them. "He had a bag clutched to his chest and his head looked as if his left cheek was resting on the bag," Beshears says. "There were a couple of passengers trying to get back into Coach. There were one or two more passengers trying to take their seats in Coach. He pushed them almost into First Class."
At first Alpizar's wife, Anne, followed him, but then she returned to the back of the airplane to retrieve her carry-on luggage, he says. "She was visibly upset," he says. "She said 'My husband is sick. I've got to get my bags.'"
Shortly after Rigoberto Alpizar rushed through the airline cabin clutching a backpack, passenger Mike Beshears saw a man in a Hawaiian shirt bolt out of his First Class seat. The man, who turned out to be a federal air marshal, followed Alpizar toward the jetway. Beshears heard yelling and then a series of shots.
"I could not make out what the words were," Beshears told TIME. But shortly after that he heard five or six shots. "It was crack-crack, then crack-crack-crack-crack," he says. His Air Force training and experience as a hunter led him to believe it was a .9 mm-caliber handgun. "It didn't take a second for me to realize it was gunfire."
From his seat in the first row of Coach, Beshears assumed that Alpizar and the marshal were on the jetway, but could not see to the entrance of the plane, which was at a right angle to the main aisle. When he saw the crew running back to the Coach section, Beshears assumed the worst. - Time
6) Jorge Figueroa - a few rows behind first class
"He wasn't saying anything; he was just running," Figueroa said. "I said to myself, 'It is probably a person who took the wrong plane.'" - Orlando Sentinel
7) Lucy Argote, a 15 yr-old Columbian spanish speaker, seat unknown
Argote gives a statement on video in Spanish (CBS4/Orlando) - 'Witnesses Say Man Shot at Airport Provoked' 12/7/05
The remaining passengers were kept on the plane for an hour, then police told them to leave with their hands behind their backs, said Lucy Argote, 15, of Codazi, Colombia. They had to leave their possessions behind.
Argote said Alpizar got up from his seat and ran toward the plane's door, with his wife yelling in Spanish.
"Officers told him to stop and he said no," the teen said. "He was running like a crazy man." - (via a non professional translator I believe) - AP
8) Olga Echeverrie, seat unknown
"The man sitting next to me got on the floor," said passenger Olga Echeverrie, of Guatemala. "I threw myself on the floor to pray for God's mercy on us." - AP
9) John Rodriquez, seat unknown
CBS4 (my transcript)
Q: Did you ever hear anybody talk about a bomb? A: No. - CBS4/Miami
"It was pretty scary. Imagine, I was on the flight. It could have happened in mid air," said John Rodriguez. - WCAV 19
10) Mike Irizarry, seat unknown
Mike Irizarry, a passenger shown on CNN, said that Alpizar "just kept saying, 'I got to get off, I got to get off." - AP
11) Gerald Chavez, seat unknown
(from spanish language version of the Sun Sentinel)
Babelfish translation: In the airship four journalists also traveled and a Colombian photographer. Gerald Chávez, of the Time of Bogota related that "everything began when already they were finishing raising the passengers. Alpízar that was in the seats of back, suddenly happened pushing the stewardess and left like crazy person until the front door while behind one lady shouted: He is ill, he is ill!
Note: Please share your translation in comments if you can.
12) Ellen Sutliff, sitting near Alpizar - Mail & Guardian
(it's not clear if Sutliff was on flight 492 at the gate in MIA or only the inbound flight from Quito)
On the flight from Quito to Miami, Alpizar appeared stressed. Ellen Sutliff, who sat behind him, observed what she considered odd behavior. He repeatedly hit the call button, annoying the flight attendants, and prior to landing he refused to relinquish his drink. "I need that now," an attendant told him. "It's the law." When Alpizar still resisted, the attendant added: "Sir, do you know what a law is?" After the exchange, Sutliff observed Buechner turn away and wipe tears from her eyes. Later, in the Miami airport, Sutliff happened to walk behind the couple on the way to a connecting flight. "Soon we'll be home and everything will be all right," Sutliff overheard Buechner say. "Please, please help me get through this." - Newsweek
Public reporting names 12 of 113 passengers no passenger reports hearing Rigoberto Alpizar mention a bomb. The only mention of a bomb that comes after the fact of the shooting, from from a passenger is from Jorge Borrelli. Borrelli says "I believe [Ann Buechner] said -- that [Alpizar] feared there was a bomb on the plane....I think he was having a panic attack." I've read dozens of reports and this is the only reference I've seen to any comment relating any mention of a bomb. Several descriptions of panic, a few thoughts that Alpizar was ill or was on the wrong plane, but no public comments from fellow passengers that Alpizar said anything about a bomb while leaving the plane.
* * * * *
Now on to the public statements of officials.
1) Joanna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for DHS 12/7/05
Joanna Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said federal air marshals confronted the man while he was on board.
Gonzalez declined to say how many air marshals were involved, or whether they were on the plane before the man made reference to a possible bomb in his carry-on.
After the marshals confronted the man aboard the plane, the passenger dashed down the aisle and out the door of the aircraft -- the air marshals in pursuit as he headed through a tunnel linking the Boeing 757 with boarding gate D-42 in Concourse D. ''The passenger immediately fled through the jetway and was running toward the terminal,'' said Gonzalez. ``The air marshals were in pursuit and ordered the subject down on the ground.''
Then, she said, the man ``appeared to be reaching into the carry on bag.''
''At that point, the marshals took appropriate action,'' she said. ``And the shots were fired.'' - Miami Herald
2) Dave Adams, spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service
"He [Rigoberto Alpizar] was running down the aisle of the aircraft saying: 'I have a bomb in my bag,' " Adams said. "The federal air marshals pursued him and told him to stop, they were police. Stop, drop the bag, he didn't comply. He started to approach them with his hand in the bag. They told him to drop to the ground, drop the bag, and he refused." - ABC News
''He continued to state he had a bomb in his bag and then reached into the bag,'' Adams said. ``At some point the air marshals thought they were facing an immediate, serious harm, so they discharged their weapons.'' - Miami Herald
3) James E. Bauer, agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals field office in Miami
About eight minutes before departure, still during the boarding process, Alpizar "uttered threatening words," informing nearby passengers that he had a bomb in his backpack, said Jim Bauer, special agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals Miami office.
Two federal air marshals overheard Alpizar, he said. "They came out of their cover and confronted him," Bauer said.
Alpizar attempted to flee, and some passengers reported seeing him run frantically up the plane's aisle.
The marshals chased him onto the jet bridge, connecting the plane with the terminal, and ordered him to get on the floor. Alpizar instead reached into his bag, and the agents responded with gunfire. - Chicago Tribune
Passengers said Alpizar's companion returned to her seat to retrieve their luggage. But before she could return, Alpizar was already being confronted by two federal air marshals.
Alpizar, clutching his backpack, did the wrong thing. He ''uttered [threatening words that included] a sentence to the effect that he had a bomb'' in his backpack, said Jim Bauer, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Air Marshals service in Miami.
The marshals ordered him to the ground. But Alpizar didn't comply. Alpizar reached into his bag instead. And in that split second, the armed marshals made their decision. They opened fire.
''The threat escalated,'' Bauer explained. ``He was in the vicinity of the front door when he was shot.'' - Miami Herald
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. - Sun Sentinel
4) Brian Doyle, spokesman for the U.S. Homeland Security Department
"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." - ABC NEWS
5) Lt. Veronica L. Ferguson, Miami-Dade Police Dept.
TOPIC: Shooting at Miami International Airport
CASE #: PD051207193706
DATE & TIME OF OCCURRENCE: Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - 2:30 p.m.
ADDRESS: OF OCCURRENCE: Miami International Airport, Concourse D, Gate 42
Passenger: (1) NAME: Alpizar, Rigoberto W/M, 44 ADDRESS: 2231 Gillis Court, Maitland, Florida 32751
D.O.B.: 04/17/1961
Narrative: On Wednesday, December 7, 2005, at approximately 2:30 p.m., units from the Miami-Dade Police Department Airport District were dispatched to Concourse D, Gate #42, in reference to a shooting involving Federal Air Marshals.
Investigation revealed that Mr. Alpizar and his wife had vacationed in Ecuador and had arrived at Miami International Airport, where they boarded a connecting flight, American Airlines Flight #924, to Orlando International Airport. Shortly after boarding, Mr. Alpizar left his seat and exited the aircraft with a backpack strapped to his chest, yelling that he had a bomb.
Air Marshals who were assigned to the flight, followed him out the jetway, identified themselves as Federal Air Marshals and ordered Mr. Alpizar to surrender himself. Mr. Alpizar then walked towards the Marshals, causing them to retreat towards the entrance to the aircraft. Meanwhile, Mr. Alpizar yelled that he had a bomb and would use it. Mr. Alpizar continued to disregard the Marshals' orders to surrender and began to place his hands into the backpack. At that point, the Marshals discharged their firearms at Mr. Alpizar, who expired at the scene from his wounds.
Mr. Alpizar's wife was subsequently interviewed. She advised that Mr. Alpizar had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
The names of the Federal Air Marshals will not be released due to National Security reasons. Additional information will be released as it becomes available.
Veronica L. Ferguson, Lieutenant 12-08-2005 Media Relations Bureau - Orlando Sentinel
6) Detective Juan Del Castillo, Miami-Dade Police
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. - Sun Sentinel
So 12 passengers did not hear Rigoberto Alpizar mention a bomb and 6 public officials say differently. What is the truth?
Some basic questions I have based on these reports:
- Did Rigoberto Alpizar run off the plane before or after being confronted? Reports conflict.
- Can officials produce any witness on the plane other than the air marshals that heard Alpizar make threats?
- Can some intrepid reporter dig up the manifest of this flight and interview more passengers?
I don't know what was said on the jetway. I see conflicts in the accounts of passengers (Alpizar ran off the plan in a panic and THEN was confronted by air marshals) and the marshals themselves (they confronted Alpizar and he fled). The initial statements of the Miami-Dade Police Department, the Air Marshals, and the Department of Homeland Security are unsupported by any passenger statement to this point. I know of no reason why any passenger in first class who would be in a position to hear the events on the jetway could not come forward with an eyewitness (or earwitness) account.
I hope other kossacks, bloggers, shoe leather reporters, and interested citizens in the US and people around the world can add details to the public record.
Thanks to the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, and the CBS and NBC Miami affiliates for doing a fine job of local reporting on this story.
Recommendations are welcome.