I think the guy on the plane probably had a death wish

He was on the down side of his Bi-polar cycle and was probably in total blackness and overcome with anxiety, so he ran out of the plane not knowing their were sky Marshall's. When confronted with the Marshall's he refused to listen to them and then I believe he said he had a bomb so they would kill him. With the guns pointed at him he probably saw death as a quick way out of his blackness. He reached into the bag to make sure they would fire.

Just my gut feeling and I could be totally wrong.

If he was bipolar, it may have seemed an easy way out of a tortuous existence, at that moment.
Very sad, for all involved.

people cannot think in the way you describe.

And no one who is not covering their @sses has come forward to confirm he said "bomb" at all.

Please.

but he may have been on the down side of a manic phase

spent all his money

pissed off his wife

who knows what else.

(assuming this is all true, it is certainly plausible)

You like the little fantasy in the OP?

He was quite obviously psychotic because only someone who has broken from reality wouldn't obey the guys with the guns.

Geebus2.

who was broken from reality wouldn't obey guys with the guns"

Oh really

Plenty of people are killed by law enforcement for not obeying them when they have guns, that doesn't mean they are psychotic.

No where in the reports I have seen has anyone stated that he was psychotic


And we won't know because he is DEAD and you or I can't assess a dead person other than to say they are dead, and they acted with poor judgment!

Geebus2 you 2

He said Bomb in the walkway when he was confronted by the marshals. It was probably just him and the officers in that area.

If he was shot in the back then we will know the officers were lying. If not then we have to take the marshals word for it.

As far as what you said: "people cannot think in the way you describe". Wrong, their is a term for this as posted below. It's called "Suicide by Cop". It happens quite frequently.

And wrong, see my post below.

I cannot believe the level of sheer, unadulterated ignorance I'm reading about mental illness on this board.

Look, my niece once was in a very depressed state and was being pulled over by a cop. She decided to drive into a telephone poll to kill herself. Fortunately she lived and had only minor injuries.

I don't think you have a clue about what you are talking about. Their are no rules in mental illness. When you decide you want to go people do very irrational things.

So you don't believe in Suicide by Cop?

We can't produce neutral witnesses if they were the only three people in the walkway. All we have is the word of both officers. According to CBS news tonight, that is what happened. You can say I am wrong and perhaps I am but perhaps you are wrong to. No one knows but the two officers at this point.

flight and prepared to shoot.

That's what I wanna know. Why were they watching those people in particular.

This flight originated in Medellin, Colombia

A flight that might actually be a logical entering point to the country since I wouldn't give the Colombians an A on checking passengers.

The flight stopped over in Miami and was en route to Orlando.

I do NOT believe the guy said anything about a bomb.

He and his wife were the last two people on board so it probably would have only been him and the sky marshals in that area since everyone had already boarded. No one but the two sky marshals would have been able to hear him say he had a bomb in that area.

Head of Air Marshal Service James Bauer's statement from yesterday:
(bold emphasis mine)

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec05/miami_12-7.html

JAMES BAUER: At approximately 2:10 this afternoon, American Airlines Flight 924 was boarding at Gate D.-42 -- it was in the boarding process. An individual later tentatively identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, age 44, was boarding that aircraft as well.

At some point, he uttered threatening words that included a sense that, in fact, that he had a bomb. There were federal air marshals on board the aircraft. They came out of their cover, confronted him, and he remained noncompliant with their instructions.

As he was attempting to evade them, his actions caused the FAM's to fire shots and, in fact, he is deceased.

The Miami-Dade Police Department responded to this event and in fact are conducting the shooting investigation.

The FBI also responded to this, and a crime was committed aboard an American carrier aircraft and they have jurisdiction in that matter, and to see whether or not there's a nexus to terrorism.

"At some point, he uttered threatening words that included a sense that, in fact, that he had a bomb."

That got changed by the press to: "He had a bomb" and now TIME Magazine is trying to get everyone all worked up about something that was never even said in the first place.

Better for ratings.

I couldn't have said it better myself. They will change the story to the truth later once the public interest has wained.

understood him??

have no ability to distinguish your internal reality from shared reality, and therefore, no ability to DECIDE TO COMMIT SUICIDE.

He may or may not have been psychotic, but people suicide by cop without being psychotic, and people suicide without being psychotic, unless you are saying that only a psychotic person would commit suicide?

We only have inference and a little information about his mental status at the time he did this.

No information I've seen indicates psychosis.

...this article: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1138965,00.html

From what was originally reported just half an hour after this happened, I sided with the marshall but kept my mind open knowing that new info would come out later. Now, we have this eye witness account discussed at Time.com that sounds like excessive force may have been used. I urge everyone to read the entire article.

from the article:

"I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy," says John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Fla. "He was getting off the plane." McAlhany also maintains that Alpizar never mentioned having a bomb.

"I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane," McAlhany told TIME in a telephone interview. "I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it."

...

"I was on the phone with my brother. Somebody came down the aisle and put a shotgun to the back of my head and said put your hands on the seat in front of you. I got my cell phone karate chopped out of my hand. Then I realized it was an official."

In the ensuing events, many of the passengers began crying in fear, he recalls. "They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground," he says "One little girl was crying. There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel."

the construction worker "changes his tale" before this is all over.

... in that small space while he was going manic. Bipolar is an organic disorder - it unleashes powerful drives in the individual experiencing it, ones that he/she can't control. Some of those can be based on (clinical) paranoia, delusions and the like. I think he really felt like he had to get out of that plane right then, and that 's what lead to this tragedy. I really feel for the guy and his wife.

Your summary sounds very plausible. We will probably never know.

the air marshall was very agitated, there was no "bomb" word heard by anyone. Execution, plain and simple.

http://www.wftv.com/news/5503137/detail.html