Village buries man shot dead in Miami

By John McPhaul

CARIARI, Costa Rica (Reuters) – A man shot dead by air
marshals in Miami airport last week was buried amid palm trees
by tearful Costa Rican villagers on Tuesday as relatives
demanded an investigation into his killing.

U.S. air marshals shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar on
December 7 as he boarded an American Airlines plane for
Orlando, saying he had claimed to be carrying a bomb in his
backpack.

Law enforcement officials later said there was no sign of a
bomb and relatives of the Costa Rica-born naturalized U.S.
citizen have demanded an explanation from the U.S. government.

Some 600 people packed a small green and white church in
Alpizar’s home town of Cariari, a village surrounded by banana
plantations 70 miles east of the capital San Jose, to bury him
amid tropical heat that gave way to a downpour.

Alpizar’s wife Anne, a U.S. citizen, father Carlos and
other members of his family sat in the front pews weeping
during the Roman Catholic church service.

Anne Alpizar told Miami-Dade police department her husband
had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental condition
also known as manic depression, but the 44-year-old slain man’s
siblings have denied he suffered any such illness.

“The way they describe him makes you think he was a
terrorist,” said his 36-year-old brother Carlos Alpizar. “We
want a transparent investigation that clarifies the incident
and clears my brother’s name.”

Alpizar criticized the marshals for using deadly force,
saying they could have proceeded differently between warning
his brother and pulling the trigger. He wondered why they did
not simply shoot him in the leg.

Rigoberto Alpizar was the first airplane passenger shot by
air marshals since the U.S. marshals program was beefed up
after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and
Washington.

His coffin was laid in a crypt in Cariari’s cemetery
alongside his mother’s remains.