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Last night, US federal air marshalls shot dead Rigoberto Alpizar on American Airlines Flight 924 in Miami, after he apparently claimed he had a bomb in his bag.

There are a number of remarkable similarities between this incident and the one involving Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot by police in London in July:

1. Both men are originally from Latin America (Menezes from Brazil, Alpizar from Costa Rica). Presumably, both men’s darker skin and hair meant they could have been superficially mistaken for Arabs.

2. Both men were thought to have been carrying explosives.

3. Neither of them actually were.

4. Both were killed in areas of public transport. Menezes in a subway, Alpizar at an airport.

5. Both were said to have been fleeing law enforcement. UK officials stated Menezes jumped a turnstile, ran from police and refused orders to stop, so they shot him. US officials state that after Alpizar exited the plane and ran onto the tarmac, he refused an order to lie down and reached into his bag, so they shot him.

In the case of Menezes, it turned out that UK officials initially lied about several parts of the story. Menezes paid the fare, descended the escalator normally, and then ran to catch the train to avoid missing it. He was then captured, pinned down, and killed.

The discrepancies between official statements and actual events, including the false claim he was wearing a heavy jacket too warm for the weather at the time, turned the incident into a scandal for British police.

Will scandal become the next thing these situations have in common?