Rigoberto Alpizar

Rigoberto Alpizar

On December 7, 2005, Mr. Rigoberto Alpizar and his wife boarded American Airlines Flight 924 from Miami International Airport to Orlando, Florida. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Alpizar abruptly traveled down the aisle toward the front of the plane passing Federal Air Marshals. The air marshals followed Alpizar onto the jetway. The Federal Air Marshals shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar on the jetway connecting Gate #42 of Concourse D at Miami International Airport. Mr. Alpizar perished on the scene.

Mr. Alpizar and his wife, Anne Buechner lived in Maitland, Florida. According to Ms. Buechner, on November 25, 2005, they both traveled to Ecuador on behalf of The Council on Quality and Leadership to perform medical mission work for Faith Medical Mission by translating English to Spanish for medical personnel. The couple worked in Ecuador for seven days. The couple then traveled to Peru for pleasure. After arriving in Lima, Peru, the couple traveled to Cuzco, Peru via airplane. After a day tour in Cuzco, the couple traveled by train to Machu Picchu, Peru. Mr. Alpizar unexpectedly, and without warning or leaving word, separated from his party and his wife and returned to Cuzco by train. His wife located him in Cuzco and joined him there the next day because travel was not immediately available. Eventually, the couple traveled from Peru back to Ecuador. On December 7, 2005, the couple traveled from Ecuador to Miami International Airport intending to take a connecting flight back to Orlando, Florida. The fatal events under investigation here occurred after boarding the connecting flight from Miami International Airport to Orlando, Florida.

According to Mr. Alpizar’s wife, Dr. Juan Balaguer provided psychiatric care to Mr. Alpizar for bipolar disorder, for which he prescribed lithium carbonate. Dr. Max Watzman acted as his general physician. Ms. Buechner reports that prior to the events under investigation here, Mr. Alpizar never had a...