Witnesses dispute official line on plane shooting

Conflicting accounts of the confused moments before a passenger was shot dead by US air marshals emerged on Dec. 9, with some witnesses insisting that he had never mentioned a bomb. The White House released a statement saying that the guards on board the American Airlines plane in Miami carried out a textbook operation when they gunned down mentally ill Rigoberto Alpizar as he attempted to flee the plane shortly before take-off on Dec. 7. Federal officials reported that the 44-year-old Costa Rican immigrant shouted that he had a bomb in his bag and ignored instructions to surrender. The official account is now being challenged by other passengers who were on board Flight 924 to Orlando on Dec. 7. No bomb was found after the shooting. Witnesses said that Alpizar's wife Anne Buechner shouted amid the chaos that her husband was bipolar and had not taken his medication. "I absolutely never heard the word 'bomb' at all," said John McAlhany, who was returning on the plane from a fishing trip in Key West, FL. "I never heard the word 'bomb' when we got off the plane. I never heard the word 'bomb' when we were sequestered. The first time I heard the word 'bomb' was when I was interviewed by the FBI." McAlhany said that he had heard Alpizar arguing with his wife shortly after they took their seats towards the rear of the plane, saying that he had to get off [the airplane]. "She said, 'Calm down,'" McAlhany said. Alpizar then ran down the aisle, with his wife close behind, he said. "She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder,'" McAlhany said. "She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off. "When he got to the first-class cabin, the marshals jumped up. After that, it was on the jetway. Only those two air marshals and him. God knows what happened. They kept telling me to get down. I heard about five shots." Another passenger, Mary Gardner, added: "I did not hear him say that he had a bomb." Alan Tirpak, who had been flying home from a business trip, said Alpizar appeared agitated before boarding the plane and was singing hymns in the departure lounge. Others described him as restless and anxious, but not dangerous. "His wife was telling him, 'Calm down. Let other people get on the plane. It will be all right,'" Tirpak said. "I thought maybe he's afraid of flying." These accounts were dismissed by law enforcement agencies. The Miami-Dade Police Department said that it had interviewed more than 100 passengers and crew members from Flight 924, and that initial evidence suggested Alpizar had repeatedly refused to surrender. John Amat, national operations vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association and a deputy with the US Marshals Service in Miami, said: "The bottom line is, we're trained to shoot to stop the threat. Hollywood has this perception that we are such marksmen we can shoot an arm or leg with accuracy. We can't. These guys were in a very tense situation. In their minds they had to believe this person was an imminent threat to themselves or the people on the plane." Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, added: "What if the officer had said, 'I think this guy is full of **it, I don't think he has anything,' and that plane had been blown to smithereens? What would the second guessers be saying then?" The couple was on the last leg of a lengthy journey home to central Florida from a missionary trip to Ecuador, where Alpizar was handing out eyeglasses to the poor. Buechner works for the Council on Quality and Leadership, a non-profit group focused on improving life for people with disabilities and mental illness. Buechner returned to the home she had shared with her husband of 18 years in Maitland, outside Orlando, late Dec. 9. She did not speak to reporters who had gathered outside, but her brother and sister emerged to read a short statement before asking the media to leave the family alone. "Rigo Alpizar was a loving, gentle and caring husband, uncle, brother, son and friend," Kelley Buechner said. "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." Armed police boarded the aircraft after the shooting, with some passengers in hysterics. McAlhany said he remembers having a shotgun pressed into his head by one officer, and hearing cries and screams from many passengers aboard the aircraft after the shooting in the jetway. "This was wrong," McAlhany said. "This man should be with his family for Christmas. Now he's dead."