MIAMI - A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said the dead passenger was a 44-year-old U.S. citizen.
I'm thinking that these days there is never a good time to claim you're bringing a bomb onto an airplane.
Sounds like the guy was mentally haywire. It's a shame, but it sounds like all involved made the best possible choice on how to handle the situation, so my kudos to them for it.
Take your medication if you need it, kids. Really.
"You are the Internet equivalent of a brown person who lives in a cardboard box in East Timor, hoping to jack some sheet metal so you'll have a roof before monsoon season hits." -- afed
Originally posted by cranlsnThe article mentions that someone may have said he was bipolar...in which case he could easily have been completely manic without his meds.
You would think the wife would have mentioned something to someone if she knew he wasn't taking his meds?
Apparently she was trying to. Supposedly she was following behind him saying that he was bipolar and hadn't taken his medication. However, I don't know whether she was able to follow him out when he confronted the air marshals.
It's sort of moot, because he STILL could've had a bomb, bi-polar or not (and regardless of a lack of medication in his system).
I feel bad for the Marshal that shot him. Even though he was only following procedure and couldn't afford to take chances, I'm sure there's still a certain level of guilt there.
Well, to be fair, if he didn't have a lack of meds in his system he probably wouldn't have proclaimed he was carrying a bomb.
It's a sad, sad thing to have happened, but you can't fault the Marshals in this situation. Perhaps a psychiatrist could've made a snap judgement on the likelihood of his claims, but when you're faced with a guy shouting about having a bomb who won't back down....well, what other course of action is there?
Originally posted by oldschoolheroPerhaps a psychiatrist could've made a snap judgement on the likelihood of his claims, but when you're faced with a guy shouting about having a bomb who won't back down....well, what other course of action is there?
Too right. I watched our "today" show today and the Host, Katie Couric was asking some expert why the Marshall didn't just shoot the guy in the hand or arm or something. So Mrs. AWA asks me why, because I guess she didn't like the guy's answer. (for those who don't know, I was a Police Office back in prehistoric days). I told her that, for the most part, when the weapon comes out, you mean to use it, and when you use it, you mean to kill. I remember one of our trainers at Acadamy telling us that the office doctrine of the PD I worked for was "shoot to disable, but shoot for the largest parrt of the body exposed to you at all times".
That would be the torso most of the time, and that's a kill shot. You only got scored (well) for only two shots on the range - Torso and head. The best scored were heart and head. That's what handguns are for.
It's sad - but just so everyone knows, all cop groups (and I am not sure who the Air Marshalls work for, I suppose Homeland Security) have EAPs that are very strong and incluse post-shooting investigations and counseling. I had that once and I never drew my weapon. (My Partner did, though)
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
Originally posted by oldschoolheroPerhaps a psychiatrist could've made a snap judgement on the likelihood of his claims, but when you're faced with a guy shouting about having a bomb who won't back down....well, what other course of action is there?
Too right. I watched our "today" show today and the Host, Katie Couric was asking some expert why the Marshall didn't just shoot the guy in the hand or arm or something.
First of all, it's really really hard to shoot somebody in the hand or arm in a situation like that. Second, it might not do any good. Say you shoot the guy in the left arm. What if he did have a bomb and the trigger was in his right hand? Or, what if a shot to the arm doesn't stop him?
You take the guy down. End of story. It turns out that there was no bomb and it could be argued this guy wasn't really a threat. But the Air Marshal didn't know that, so he did the absolute right thing.
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You wanna talk insane... Anyone see the episode of "Making Sense" that dealt with the post 9/11 cartoon about Terror Widows, and suggested that they're exploiting the tragedy?