Sad Story, did the man really had said that he has a bomb?

Sad stuff.

Another pointless death because of a culture of fear.

sad, very sad.

Moral - if you are on medication for any sort of bipolar, schizoid, or other similar issue, and you have a plane ticket, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE YOUR MEDICATION!!!!!

Very sad. What would had been even sadder though would have been if he did have a bomb and the air marshals were not there or had failed to act to stop him from setting it off. I was not there so I don't know if the shooting was justified or not. But from what I read and see on television about the situation, it appears it was.

Some people are criticizing the air marshals for not shooting him in the shoulder or leg inorder to just stop him. I took police training and know that if you must shoot, you shoot to kill. This is because your chances of hitting an innocent person is greatly increased by not aiming for the trunk of the body or being shot yourself. I know that on television the cops can shoot the gun out of the hands of the bad guys. It is time though for us to develope a stun gun that could be used in situations such as this.

I have a family member who has a mental illness. Of course, I would not want something like this to happen to him. Like I said, "very sad."

I agree...very sad. But it's easy to second-guess and to criticize the actions of the Air Marshalls. Although there should be a thourough investigation (as in all police shootings), I feel that if I was confronted by someone who said that they had a bomb, they ran away screaming, and there were a lot of innocent people standing around, I would try to stop the man, with leathal means if necessary. I would make that same choice, every time.

Peace

Well, this certainly makes me feel safer. Now everyone knows what happens to people who threaten to blow up a bomb on a plane. Poor guy though, being out of his mind. I'm willing to bet he had no idea what he was doing at the time. Sounds to me like he simply fell apart. But, still the marshalls should be congratulated for their excellent service.

The Federal Air Marshalls have seldom used their weapons, so I don't think anyone can accuse them of being trigger happy. This seems to be an isolated tragedy.

Poor guy. But what else can you do when someone says they have a bomb?

If its true the wife was screaming about her husband not have taking his meds, the air marshal should have tackled him instead of shooting.

Luke Wolf said:

If its true the wife was screaming about her husband not have taking his meds, the air marshal should have tackled him instead of shooting.

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That's exactly what I was thinking.

``Victor

Victor said:

That's exactly what I was thinking.

``Victor

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The last report that I heard was the he was reaching into his backpack when he was shot. They had every reason in the world to suspect that he was about to detonate, and tackling, tasering, etc, wouldn't have stopped that. For all they knew, the wife could have been in on it. Sad story.

Luke Wolf said:

If its true the wife was screaming about her husband not have taking his meds, the air marshal should have tackled him instead of shooting.

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The wife could have been an associate, for all that anyone was aware..........
The marshall had no alternative.

michel said:

The wife could have been an associate, for all that anyone was aware..........
The marshall had no alternative.

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Beat me to it.

Once you say, "I have a bomb in my bag" and then you reach into your bag, it would have been irresponsible for the marshals to do anything other than to shoot.

Victor said:

That's exactly what I was thinking.

``Victor

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There was no way to know she was telling the truth, though. What if they had believed her and it turned out he really did have a bomb?

I don't like that they had to shoot him, but I just can't see a way around it.

Jensa said:

There was no way to know she was telling the truth, though. What if they had believed her and it turned out he really did have a bomb?

I don't like that they had to shoot him, but I just can't see a way around it.

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Great minds think alike...

I stand corrected. I agree with Jensa, Darkdale, and Michel.

~Victor

There is no reason to think the marshalls simply wanted to kill a man that day or that they wanted to kill that particular man for reasons other than to protect that plane its passangers and themselves. There is reason to think they did want to protect themselves from a plane a mad bomber and their own lives.

As bi-polar as the deceased may have been as others have already pointed out he and his wife had the option of taking meds to keep his mental condition in check and if his head was so messed up he suffered hallcucinations why was he put on a plane (by his wife) at all?

Just as a hypothical what if that plane taken off before his episode kicked in? In the air at a a few thousand feet this man stands up and yells "I have a bomb". Even if it was a lie (as there is no bomb), think of the potential damage. To the elderly passangers, the children the others caught-up in their instinct of fear of death.

This man is dead only because he and his wife failed to take precautions to make him safe within society. While I feel sadness for his death I realize that under the circumstances presented in the story the marshalls made the only reasonable and appropiate choice. To assume he didn't have a bomb after he said something to the effect of "I have a bomb" isn't an option in their profession and unfortuntly for good reason.

Jensa said:

Poor guy. But what else can you do when someone says they have a bomb?

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You put several .45 caliber holes in major organs and hope like crazy that you stop him before he detonates it. I am extremely thankful for the Air Marshals and I wish there were more of them.

I can tell you, if that flight was out of DFW or Love Field, that guy would have met a sad ending whether there were Air Marshals around or not. Any able bodied man on a plane needs to be an unofficial Air Marshal. Any crazies that want to jump up shouting Allah Akbar, or I got a bomb on a flight I am on better be out of my reach.

I watched Katie Couric this morning talking about how they should have shot him in the shoulder or the leg. What a completely idiotic thing to say. He has a bag, says he has a bomb in it, is reaching into the bag, and we are going to fault the guys for killing him? I then had to remind myself that most people in the audience probably had no idea how incredibly difficult it is to shoot with that type of accuracy, even under calm conditions, much less under the real life or death situation these Marshals were dealing with.

I don't find this story to be sad. It is uplifting. Gives me some hope that maybe, just maybe, the next time some nutjob decides to hijack a plane, this will be the same ending he gets. Yeah, its too bad for the guy, sad he had a mental condition and all that, but there was nothing else that could have, or should have been done by the Marshals.

If this same thing had happened on a flight with no Air Marshals would you have the guts to tackle this guy down and disable him? If yes, I got an isle seat warmed up for you, right next to me. You are my kind of citizen.

B.