I’m pre-emptively pitting anyone that either pits or complains about the air marshal’s actions.
I’d be surprised if someone doesn’t.
There’s never enough information in these news articles to truly determine whether the marshall’s actions were justified or not. Based on the very little information therein, I’d say he probably fired a bit too soon, but given the high level of tension in the situation as described, I can’t say I blame him for being somewhat quick on the trigger. OTOH, blowing up defenseless luggage seems a bit extreme. Heh.
Tragic, but I can’t say I really blame the air marshall, at least based on that news story.
Same here.
Fired when the guy reached into a bag.
Law enforcement doesn’t have a responsibility to wait to see what he’s getting out of the bag when their life could be on the line.
I can’t blame the air marshall for what he did. I’d hate to be in his shoes right about now, though.
I’m sure the shit will hit the fan if it is discovered that the guy was off his meds. Then the lawsuits will begin.
I disagree. Not to turn this into debate, but I don’t think making a reasonable determination that a weapon is, in fact, present is asking too much prior to the usage of deadly force. Again, however, it is not possible from the article to determine if this is actually what occurred. The marshall very well may have observed the man to be retrieving what he reasonably believed was a weapon.
Marty you are a moron. You know next to nothing about what happened yet you are such a sycophant loser that you are ready to accept anything law enforcement does apparently. I don’t know if the shooting was justified. I am suspicious considering his wife was running behind screaming that he was mentally ill and hadn’t taken his meds. Plus the fact that he was running away from the plane. But I am willing to withold judgement till all the facts are in. Unlike you who will just accept at face value whatever version law enforcement gives. During the american revolution they had a name for fuckers like you, they called them torries.
Sorry. I can’t blame him either. From what I heard, they identified themselves and fired when he refused to stop and reached into his bag. He said that he had a bomb. The guy did his job.
Not his fault in the least.
Irate man running down the aisle reaching into something while screaming “bomb!”. It was totally justified (if in fact news reports are accurate, and of course a good portion is probably speculation), but sad at the same time. A competent judge would throw this out based on what we’ve been told, and maybe make a recommendation to review Air Marshall Policy, but likely things won’t change. And honestly, should anything change?
Just out of curiousity, if the guy really wasn’t on his meds, how can the anyone else be held responsible. Isn’t it his and/or his carer/wife’s duty of care to make sure that he’s taking his meds? Even if his wife was running after him down the aisle, I’m not sure if many peple would believe that he’s just some nut…there has just been too much happening for anyone to sit back and believe what one woman says in the midst of an uproar like that. I’m not up to speed on the laws around this kind of thing in the USA, so perhaps someone could fill me in?
I’m sorry to those who think that the shooting is unjustified, but if I were an air marshall and some guy started running around and screaming “BOMB!” I’d be pretty quick to take action too. Maybe not shoot him, but I’m not sure. If my life, and the lives of others could be in danger, then I’d probably take whatever action necessary to remove that threat.
Nobody in this thread has said this.
If the story holds up as reported (agitated guy saying stuff about a bomb, running away from marshalls and reaching into his bag after being told to get down on the ground), then the air marshall is 100% justified in shooting. No argument from me on that.
But, in the few hours since it was initially reported, it was reported that the plane was from Columbia. The plane came from Ecuador; at least that’s what they’re saying right now. (Why the hell they can’t get that straight is a mystery to me). So if they can’t even get where the godamn plane came from straight, what compelling reason is there to believe that ALL ot the other reported circumstances are correct? And if we don’t have all the correct facts, we should just STFU until we do. Including the incredibly lame reporters who can’t seem to find their ass with both hands.
I’m coming down on the air marshall’s side, based on the data we have now. Reaching into the bag was the line. Cross it, and they put you down. If he was off his meds, serious questions need to be asked of his wife, but a reasonable shooting in my book.
This is unreasonable. A gun takes about .5 seconds to fire, if the guy is reaching for his gun, you shoot and kill him. Why would you wait until he’s brought it up into sight and levelled it to fire? The thing is, it could take half a second, or it could take three seconds to pull that gun out. What if the air marshall waited that half second for the perp to pull the gun out, noticed it was a gun, and decided to fire? The air marshall is trained and accurate, but he could miss, or his shot could graze the guy. The air marshall would keep firing until the guy was dead, but the longer he gives the guy a chance to get that weapon out, the better chance there is the guy gets a shot off, a shot that could hit and kill an innocent bystander or hit and kill the air marshal.
And what if he was reaching to trigger the bomb he said was in his backpack? You would never see the weapon then, a few seconds after he reached into the back pack all you’d see is a fiery explosion as the concussive force of the blow turned your internal organs into liquid and seared the flesh from your bones.
I think this is tragic, but I’m not sure what else the marshals could have done - especially if you try to picture this situation and keep in mind how fast it probably went down. If the woman is just running behind him and yelling “my husband,” it wouldn’t have reduced the tension or explained anything. Even if she was calmly trying to say exactly what the situation was, I’m not sure if that would have made a difference. They tried to deal with him on the plane, and he ran off. They asked him to stop, he wouldn’t. They told him to lie down, and he didn’t, and then reached into the bag where he said he had a bomb.
Assuming all of the above is accurate, of course.
I know as much as anyone can at the moment.
My OP just said “I pit anyone that pits this guy or complains about what he’s done.”
People that want to complain about the air marshall have just as much info to go on as I do.
And the info we have seems pretty complete for such prelimnary reports.
Obviously all of us can only operate on the information that we have.
So now I’m a loyalist to the British crown? uh oh.
Anyways, the guy wasn’t running when he was shot, he stopped to reach in to his back pack, the same backpack he claimed had a bomb in it.
Just because the Marshal heard he was off the meds doesn’t mean anything. Just because he’s off his meds doesn’t mean the Marshal can simply assume he was lying about the bomb, it’s not like someone who has a mental illness isn’t capable of also being the type of person to try and bomb an airplane.
I believe it originated in Quito, flew to Columbia, then to Miami. hence the conflicting statements.
Me too. I see no reason whatsoever to criticize the air marshall’s actions.