A train engineer at the Port of Los Angeles was arrested Wednesday for allegedly derailing a locomotive at full speed near the USNS Mercy hospital ship being used to ease hospital beds during the coronavirus pandemic.
Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro, was charged in a criminal complaint with one federal count of train wrecking, which carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court states Moreno admitted to authorities in two separate interviews that he intentionally derailed and crashed the PHL train near the Mercy on Tuesday afternoon.
Prosecutors say Moreno was arrested sometime later and turned over to FBI agents early Wednesday morning.
According to the complaint, Moreno ran the train off the tracks before crashing through a series of barriers, ultimately coming to rest more than 250 yards from the Mercy.
There were no injuries and no damage to the Mercy was reported. The train leaked fuel that required a hazardous-materials cleanup.
Prosecutors say a a California Highway Patrol officer witnessed the crash before he took Moreno into custody as he fled the scene.
The CHP officer who witnessed the crash reported seeing “the train smash into a concrete barrier at the end of the track, smash into a steel barrier, smash into a chain-link fence, slide through a parking lot, slide across another lot filled with gravel, and smash into a second chain-link fence,” according to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint.
According to court documents, Moreno allegedly told the CHP officer, “You only get this chance once. The whole world is watching. I had to. People don’t know what’s going on here. Now they will.”
During an initial interview with port police, prosecutors say Moreno admitted crashing the train, saying he was suspicious of the Mercy and believed it had an alternate purpose related to COVID-19, such as a “government takeover.”
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The next day, CBS LA published a followup report entitled "Friend Of Man Accused Of Trying To Hit USNS Mercy With Train Speaks Out":
A
friend of a man accused of derailing a locomotive at full speed near
the USNS Mercy hospital ship being used to ease hospital beds during the coronavirus pandemic spoke out Thursday.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” TJ Schlick said. “None of it. None of it makes sense.”
With tears in his eyes, Schlick described his longtime friend, 44-year-old Eduardo “Eddie” Moreno.
“He’s
a father, a loving husband, good friend, the guy who would give you the
shirt off his back,” Schlick said. “He’s always been there for me.”
Moreno, a train engineer, is accused of derailing his train Tuesday afternoon in an attempt to hit the USNS Mercy hospital ship.
“To
tell me he’s going to do something like this that’s going to take him
away from his family, it’s just not right,” Schlick said. “Something’s
wrong.”
The two have known each other since they were teens working as deck hands on fishing boats. Both would later become captains.
“There’s
no way that train was ever going to reach that ship, so to sit here and
tell me that he’s going to take that train, even at full speed, and
take out a navy ship that’s just unreachable, with knowing how smart
Eddie is, that’s just not in his realm,” Schlick said. “To tell me he’s
going to do something to hurt a vessel, with Eddie’s love for the ocean
and boats, I’m not buying that.”
According
to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Moreno said he wanted to wake
people up. Investigators said he told them he thought the ship was
suspicious and was not there to treat patients in an effort to ease the burden on regional hospitals as authorities have said.
“There’s
never been talk of any type of conspiracy,” Schlick said. “There’s
never been any attitude that anyone’s out to get us.”
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