MT. SHASTA, Calif. — One person was killed in a shooting by a police officer on Amtrak’s southbound Coast Starlight early on Christmas morning, the Mt. Shasta Police Department confirmed Tuesday evening.
The officer involved and another person were injured the police department said in a press release on Facebook. The department had previously reported an officer-involved shooting but offered no other details. Amtrak has subsequently informed employees that the other person injured was a crew member who was also shot.
The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m. and is being investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office. KSHL-TV interviewed a train passenger, who also told his story on this blog. He said a person on board was acting erratically, and believed the train stopped in Mt. Shasta — which is not a scheduled Starlight stop — to put that individual off. He said he later heard “someone being tazed” before shots were fired.
KCRC-TV reported on Wednesday that an internal Amtrak memo released by employees indicated the train’s assistant conductor was struck by rounds fired by the officer, a fact confirmed by the wife of the crew member. He was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries and is recovering.
Mt. Shasta is about 9 miles from a scheduled Starlight stop in Dunsmuir, Calif. The train, which had been 5 minutes late in departing its previous stop in Klamath Falls, Ore., was 5 hours late into Dunsmuir after the incident, and another spent 30 minutes there. It eventually arrived in Van Nuys, Calif., 8 hours, 43 minutes late at 5:19 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 26. The train was terminated in Van Nuys because by then, track and signal work had begun at LA Union Station that closed the station to all rail traffic through Dec. 29.
— Updated Dec. 28 at 7:05 a.m. with additional details.
Another sad Christmas story for many families.
No. Thank you for the attempt at speaking for me. Those are my words. More they’re trying to figure out WTF they were either witness to or woken up by. There was zero communication with the passengers from Amtrak or the police throughout the duration. The first comms from Amtrak I received was a txt telling me my train was being delayed. I was in the car the shooting happened about 9 rows back and awake to witness the whole thing. From initial contact with the decedent, to the stopping and picking up of the officer so he could conduct an investigation, onto the subsequent shooting of an unrestrained suspect in an investigation 20min after that.
No Steve I am sure they are all traumatized.
What are the injuries of the involved officer?
Charles, I haven’t been seeing many articles where police are emptying their magazines on mental health individuals. Is there a better news agency covering the issue.
Another resolution of a mental health problem by emptying the magazine into the person in crisis.
You know this to be a fact? Perhaps you were an eye witness to this event?
Unmentioned in the article (D.P.M. has definitely left the room.) is that the person killed was a passenger. Source: The Messenger
Yes he was a passenger. Boarded at Klamath Falls. Whether he was ticketed or not I do not know. There seems to be a breakdown in the vetting process of passengers. Not so much their mental health, but whether they have tickets to ride. I’ve witnessed people without tickets board with no intention of purchasing tickets and travel successfully. This trip no exception.
“There is a whole train full of people that are on the verge of trying to figure out if they are traumatized or not,” according to this expert on the scene blogger. They are on the verge of figuring out how to cash in or sue.
Lawyers standing-by now… Typing-up resumes!
No. Trying to figure out WTF they were either witness to or woken up by. There was zero communication with the passengers from Amtrak or the police throughout the duration. The first comms from Amtrak I received was a txt telling me my train was being delayed. I was in the car the shooting happened about 9 rows back and awake to witness the whole thing. From initial contact with the decedent, to the stopping and picking up of the officer so he could conduct an investigation, onto the subsequent shooting of an unrestrained suspect in an investigation 20min after that.