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Eye-Witness: Air Marshall Too Quick to Shoot Passenger Rigoberto Alpizar

by

Siobhan Morrissey

A passenger on Flight 924 says Rigoberto Alpizar NEVER claimed to have a bomb.

Read here full article on Time.com

At least one passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924 maintains the federal air marshals were a little too quick on the draw when they shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar as he frantically attempted to run off the airplane shortly before take-off.

John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Florida maintains that Alpizar NEVER mentioned having a bomb.

When the incident began McAlhany was in seat 24C, in the middle of the plane.

He says:

"I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy.
He was getting off the plane.

I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane.
I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous. They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?' That's what they called it.

[Alpizar] was in the back, a few seats from the back bathroom. He sat down. I heard an argument with his wife.
He was saying 'I have to get off the plane.' She said, 'Calm down.'

She was running behind him saying, 'He's sick. He's sick. He's ill. He's got a disorder.'
I don't know if she said bipolar disorder [as one witness has alleged]. She was trying to explain to the marshals that he was ill. He just wanted to get off the plane.

He was carrying a big backpack and wearing a fanny pack in front. It would have been impossible to lie flat on the floor of the plane, as marshals ordered him to do, with the fanny pack on. You can't get on the ground with a fanny pack. You have to move it to the side.

I didn't see him get shot. They kept telling me to get down. I heard about five shots.

I was looking through the seats because I wanted to see what was coming.

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."

They were pointing the guns directly at us instead of pointing them to the ground.

One little girl was crying.
There was a lady crying all the way to the hotel.

I don't believe he should be dead right now."