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December 07, 2005

BREAKING NEWS

Shots fired on an American Airlines jet on the runway in Miami. CNN is saying it's an Air Marshal.
Breitbart has it as a flight out of Columbia and one person wounded.

UPDATE: Fox News is reporting some knucklehead said he had a bomb and the Marshal shot him. Some reports are saying he'd tried to flee through the terminal. But nothing official's out yet.
AP's reporting someone was confirmed shot. Homeland Security confirms a person getting on the flight claimed they had a bomb in a carry-on bag, security tried to take the individual at gate, he ran off jetway, tackled by the Air Marshals and attempted to pull something from his bag, so they fired. Confusing stuff so far.
UPDATE: Hmmm, a local (Miami-Dade) news person (WFOR) reporting they killed him.
UPDATE: Homeland Sec. spokesman says the plane landed and parked at the gate. The passenger said he had a bomb in his carry-on, was confronted by an Air Marshal, then ran off the plane. A 'team' of Air Marshals pursued him, ordered him to get on the ground, which he did BUT then he reached into his carry-on and they shot him.

Amazingly enough, with all the loonies and drunks on every one of thousands of daily flights in the US, this is the FIRST time the Air Marshals have fired a weapon. That's a testament to training.

UPDATE: He was a 44 yr old American citizen. He frantically rushed down the aisle, then out the door, starting the whole brouhaha, would not stop when the AirMarshals directed him to and actually turned back toward them. In the meantime, a witness on the plane says a woman with him was saying he suffer from bi-polarism and hadn't taken his meds.

Oh, man, they lit him up. Five to six shots from multiple weapons.

UPDATE: AH, so. He was at the back of the plane, sitting with his wife, got into an argument with her and started on down the aisle, with her behind him shouting that he had mental problems.

Chris Matthews is a jacka$$. He basically just asked if Air Marshals weren't trained to be able to take the guy down physically instead of having to shoot him. I knew he'd get around to police brutality questions eventually.

Posted by tree hugging sister at December 7, 2005 02:39 PM

Comments

I imagine he was rather bummed that the marshall was on the plane.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at December 7, 2005 03:07 PM

F*cks with your dope, for sure.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at December 7, 2005 03:12 PM

You play the odds, sometimes you lose.

Posted by: Crusader at December 7, 2005 03:25 PM

Who would expect any trouble on a flight from Medellin?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at December 7, 2005 03:28 PM

Moral: Take them meds!

Posted by: Crusader at December 7, 2005 04:10 PM

If this guy was generally a mentally ill person, I don't want to make light of his getting killed, but I hope that this episode might, once and for all, properly illustrate the meaning of the phrase "DON'T EVEN JOKE ABOUT IT."

Posted by: Emily at December 7, 2005 04:57 PM

"Chris Matthews is a jackass"

Yes.

How f***ing stupid do you gotta be to suggest that air marshalls should be trained to tackle an armed assailant MUCH LESS ONE POTENTIALLY ARMED WITH A FRIGGIN' BOMB??

Posted by: Ken Summers at December 7, 2005 05:29 PM

Well, Mr. Summers, old Wolf just tried the same thing. Asking the FL congressman that's head of the transportation committee "have you heard the reports that this man had mental problems" and the Rep. cut him off with "I don't care about that. I support the Air Marshals' actions 100%". Now Wolf's going after "would there be reason to believe that they identified themselves as Federal Air Marshals, because they were dressed in plain clothes."

Posted by: tree hugging sister at December 7, 2005 05:53 PM

Wolfie the Talking Hairbag? Say it isn't so!

Jeebus. For Mr. Blitzen's information, the most recent controversy I recall involved the fact that the AMs were dressed in (plainclothes) suits that pegged them as government agents, rather than even MORE plain clothes that wouldn't radiated "fed - kill him first!" to potential terrorists.

Lawd afriday. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, damned if you don't but might, damned if you only sometimes...

Posted by: Ken Summers at December 7, 2005 07:39 PM

Jeebus. From the WaPo, via Bitter:

So that said, I click on over to the Washington Post this morning.
Aviation security consultant Douglas R. Laird of Laird & Associates said shooting a suspect who claims to be carrying an explosive device could cause a greater threat to passengers if that suspect detonates the bomb after being shot. (Emphasis added.)
A greater threat than what? Detonating the device before he's been shot?
This genius is supposed to be an expert

Posted by: Ken Summers at December 8, 2005 09:54 AM