by J.R.
As many of you already know, a passenger on an American Airlines jet was shot and killed by an Air Marshal, when the male passenger stated that he had a bomb in his carry on bag. The Air Marshal attempted to apprehend the man who then ran out of the plane toward the airport terminal, when the Air Marshal caught up to the man, the man reached into the bag and was shot and killed by the Air Marshal.
It was later learned, unforunately, that the man did not have a bomb in his carry on, and that the man had a mental condition and was not taking his medication.
Unfortunate or not, the Air Marshal did the right thing here...his job. The Air Marshal had no way of knowing whether or not this man had a bomb, or whether or not the man had a mental condition, even though his wife reportedly was stating that he did. For all the Marshal knew, the wife could have been part of the plot to dentonate the bomb.
Certainly if the man had stopped and put his hands in the air he would not have been shot. He chose to run toward the airport and the Marshal certainly had no choice but to pursue him. When the man was finally caught up to, he reached into the carry on bag. The Marshal did not have a choice now but to use deadly force to stop this man from possibly detonating a bomb.
Everything the Marshal did here was correct and necessary to protect the public. As a 25 year veteran police officer and certified defensive tactics and use of force instructor, I concur with the action taken by the Air Marshal. In fact, had the Air Marshal not been able to catch up with this man, he would have been forced to make another decision, to shoot the man in the back to stop him. If this man had a bomb and was able to get into the terminal he could detonate the bomb in there. Under these circumstances the Marshal would have still been justified in doing so, even though the man may not have reached into the bag.
Law Enforcement officers may only use deadly force when they are confronted with a situation where a suspect poses a threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or the public at large. This suspect certainly posed that risk to both the officer and the public based on the information the Air Marshal had at the time that he made the decision to take action.
The Air Marshal was justified in using deadly force regardless of whether or not the man reached into his bag. The shooting may have been unfortunate, but it was justifiable under the circumstances.
3 comments:
As a 25 year veteran police officer I suppose it's understandable that you pronounce this as righteous. You might want to factor in the fact that there are passengers now claiming that there was never any mention of a bomb by the deceased. And that they were questioned by FBI agents in a very pointed way: "Are you sure you didn't hear the word bomb," etc.
I have long ago quit believing the story that comes out immediately in the press. In fact, the faster we are 'informed' of the 'truth' the more suspicious I become. And this 'story' hit the wires with the speed of light.
Just sayin
More Americans like yourself should be speaking out in their defense. Great post J.R.
I agree with your views. However, though the air marshals were not specifically at fault, there was a bigger system at fault in the situation.
We may term this incident as unfortunate but what do we have if this happens in future? Will the system behave in a different way? or yet another insane person will be killed?
Cant something like a taser be used ?
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