The Florida "Bomber" shooting? Nasty add'l info.

[thewayne]

More than one passenger say they did not hear the word bomb. And police holding shotguns to other passenger's heads? Weird stuff.

It's possible the link will break, I'll see if I can find something more permanent.

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1128814&tw=wn_wire_story

Comments

[greyweirdo.livejournal.com]

This is what happenes when you give people guns and no trianing. That is the most generous thing I can say about this situation unfortunatly. Clearly a mistake was made, how big will remain to be seen. It does make me wonder though if people are going to continue to support armed air marshals on planes now.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you can say 'guns and no training.' According to one article that I read, the marshalls in question had previous experience in law enforcement, they weren't rent-a-cops from some grocery store.

I don't think the problem is armed air marshalls on planes per se. This is supposition on my part, but they have a limited range of responses available to them. For example, Phoenix Police now all carry tasers in addition to their Glocks and batons. So if they're dealing with someone who is mental (as the dead man was) or someone armed with knives wanting to commit Suicide By Cop, they have a ranged, non-lethal response that doesn't endanger them. (if a person with a knife is within 15-20' of you and your gun is holstered, you're going to get cut before your gun clears leather)

There is also the risk to others/response matrix. If the man did indeed claim to have a bomb, you can't risk a hand-to-hand take down, and you probably shouldn't risk a taser take down. Your best response for the safety of others is a gun.

To complicate matters further, the man had already been through airport screening, which theoretically should mean that there is no possible way that he had a bomb on him. However, we all know that screening is no where near as effective as it should be and that marshalls can't rely on that as an absolute that someone didn't get through with a weapon.

Nasty situation.

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just me, but John McAlhany, the one passenger who claimed that a policeman held a shotgun to his head, just didn't sound credible. Many studies have proven that in a stress situation, eye-witnesses will often misremember significant details, and McAlhany's answers were too definitive. I'm not saying that he's consciously lying, but I wouldn't take what he's saying as the absolute truth.

Also, I have yet to see in any follow-up on this case explain why Rigoberto Alpizar was off his medication. Am I the only person who considers that reason important?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree. It is a critical point that he for whatever reason was off his medication (F*ING STICKYKEYS! WHY WON"T F*ING WINDWS LET ME UNINSTALL THAT F*ING SOFTWARE!)

Time will tell what the investigation uncovers but it won"t be pretty