When to shoot depends on what threat seen
When to shoot depends on what threat seen: "WASHINGTON -- Learning to accurately fire a weapon is relatively easy for most law enforcement officers. Determining when to pull the trigger is not.
Often there are only seconds to make a life-or-death decision, as at Miami International Airport when air marshals shot and killed an unarmed passenger. Federal officials said Thursday the marshals acted properly.
'Deadly force may be employed only when a federal agent has probable cause to believe there is an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to himself, his partner or others. In this situation here, this was textbook,' said Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service.
The marshals shot Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, on Wednesday with their SIG Sauer handguns after he ran from a parked American Airlines jet shouting he had a bomb, Adams said.
The two marshals, still publicly unidentified, had chased him from the Orlando-bound plane and confronted him in the jetway. They opened fire after Alpizar, ignoring commands to stop and lie down, approached the marshals as he reached to his backpack and continued to claim he had a bomb, Adams said. No explosives were found after the shooting.
Witnesses said Alpizar's wife, Anne, had frantically tried to explain he was bipolar, a mental illness also known as manic-depression, and was off his medication.
Shooting to maim or injure - rather than kill - is not an option for federal agents, said John Amat, national operations vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which includes air marshals in its membership.
"The bottom line is, we're trained to shoot to stop the threat," said Amat, who is also a deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Miami. "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."
Air marshals fly undercover and never alone. While they have been involved in numerous incidents, the shooting was the first time a marshal had fired a weapon on duty since the Sept. 11 attacks, which prompted the hiring of thousands.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that "I don't think anyone wants to see it come to a situation like this" but that it appeared the marshals acted properly. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said "we obviously need to wait for the investigation to conclude" to determine if the marshals should have done something differently.
Marshals typically come from law enforcement backgrounds. They undergo further training at the agency's academy in New Jersey, as well as ongoing training at 21 field offices around the country. They are held to the highest standards in marksmanship of any federal officers, Adams said.
The two marshals involved in Wednesday's shooting in Miami joined the force in 2002, he said. One previously worked with the Border Patrol, the other as a Customs inspector. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave while the Miami-Dade Police Department investigates, Adams added.
Although one of the two marshals speaks Spanish, the entire exchange with Alpizar - a U.S. citizen originally from Costa Rica - was conducted in English, Adams said.
Whether Alpizar was mentally ill didn't matter while marshals were trying to talk to him and determine if the threat was real, others said.
"The person was screaming, saying he would blow up the plane, reaching into his bag - they had to react," Amat said.
Indeed, a person's mental illness hardly guarantees that nothing bad will happen, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. If anything, it can make a situation more volatile.
"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?" Pasco said.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said he thinks the shooting may prove more "reassuring than disturbing" to the traveling public his organization represents.
"This is a reminder they are there and are protecting the passengers and that it is a seriously deadly business," he said."
At first I thought that it was really wrong for those cops to shoot this man. But after reading this article and getting some more information, I have determined that what that air marshal did was necessary. It's very sad and misfortune it, but if I was a cop and some one was yelling, "I have a bomb I'm going to blow everyone up", and then that person was reaching into his backpack I would shoot him too. Like the article said it was by the book.
Often there are only seconds to make a life-or-death decision, as at Miami International Airport when air marshals shot and killed an unarmed passenger. Federal officials said Thursday the marshals acted properly.
'Deadly force may be employed only when a federal agent has probable cause to believe there is an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to himself, his partner or others. In this situation here, this was textbook,' said Dave Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service.
The marshals shot Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, on Wednesday with their SIG Sauer handguns after he ran from a parked American Airlines jet shouting he had a bomb, Adams said.
The two marshals, still publicly unidentified, had chased him from the Orlando-bound plane and confronted him in the jetway. They opened fire after Alpizar, ignoring commands to stop and lie down, approached the marshals as he reached to his backpack and continued to claim he had a bomb, Adams said. No explosives were found after the shooting.
Witnesses said Alpizar's wife, Anne, had frantically tried to explain he was bipolar, a mental illness also known as manic-depression, and was off his medication.
Shooting to maim or injure - rather than kill - is not an option for federal agents, said John Amat, national operations vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which includes air marshals in its membership.
"The bottom line is, we're trained to shoot to stop the threat," said Amat, who is also a deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Miami. "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."
Air marshals fly undercover and never alone. While they have been involved in numerous incidents, the shooting was the first time a marshal had fired a weapon on duty since the Sept. 11 attacks, which prompted the hiring of thousands.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that "I don't think anyone wants to see it come to a situation like this" but that it appeared the marshals acted properly. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said "we obviously need to wait for the investigation to conclude" to determine if the marshals should have done something differently.
Marshals typically come from law enforcement backgrounds. They undergo further training at the agency's academy in New Jersey, as well as ongoing training at 21 field offices around the country. They are held to the highest standards in marksmanship of any federal officers, Adams said.
The two marshals involved in Wednesday's shooting in Miami joined the force in 2002, he said. One previously worked with the Border Patrol, the other as a Customs inspector. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave while the Miami-Dade Police Department investigates, Adams added.
Although one of the two marshals speaks Spanish, the entire exchange with Alpizar - a U.S. citizen originally from Costa Rica - was conducted in English, Adams said.
Whether Alpizar was mentally ill didn't matter while marshals were trying to talk to him and determine if the threat was real, others said.
"The person was screaming, saying he would blow up the plane, reaching into his bag - they had to react," Amat said.
Indeed, a person's mental illness hardly guarantees that nothing bad will happen, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. If anything, it can make a situation more volatile.
"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?" Pasco said.
David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said he thinks the shooting may prove more "reassuring than disturbing" to the traveling public his organization represents.
"This is a reminder they are there and are protecting the passengers and that it is a seriously deadly business," he said."
At first I thought that it was really wrong for those cops to shoot this man. But after reading this article and getting some more information, I have determined that what that air marshal did was necessary. It's very sad and misfortune it, but if I was a cop and some one was yelling, "I have a bomb I'm going to blow everyone up", and then that person was reaching into his backpack I would shoot him too. Like the article said it was by the book.
posted by Ben | 
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