Armed man arrested after emergency-brake stopping CZ Nebraska in cab

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The Chief

The Chief

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Feb 23, 2003
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Fort Worth Texas Wherethe WestBegins
[ [ Mods: I looked & looked & didn't see this from 21 Oct. posted.
If it is & I missed, please merge. Thanks. ] ]

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OXFORD, Neb. – Authorities say an armed man managed to get into an Amtrak locomotive and pull the train's emergency brake in southeast Nebraska.
Deputies responded to the incident in Oxford around 1:54 a.m. after being alerted that the eastbound California Zephyr was in emergency response mode.

(He was a 25-yeard-old passenger, and in unit behind lead loco.)

http://journalstar.com/news/local/911/armed-man-pulled-emergency-brake-on-amtrak-locomotive-nebraska-sheriff/article_12d45c4f-a5da-5b75-8e7c-cb3ddbd12821.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/23/armed-man-arrested-after-stopping-amtrak-train.html

Maybe he missed his stop in McCook.
 
I don't see how an intruder can be on the train and get into the cab. The car in back of the loco is usually a baggage car and the train has no acesss to the locomotive cab. To get into the even the second loco cab you must climb a ladder and the doors are probably locked. This incident sounds very strange to say the least. One thing for sure; if he isn't there already, this individual will be going to jail.
 
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Climb a ladder? What ladder? If the locomotive rear door is not locked you just open it and walk in from the baggage car, assuming its doors are not locked of course, also assuming the second loco was a P42 facing forward.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
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I read on line when it happened that the individual got into the second locomotive through an unlocked door during a stop. Being in the middle of the night in Nebraska, lighting was probably limited so it was easy for this guy to walk undetected to the rear of the second locomotive, ease in through the unlocked door, stay hidden until the train got moving.
 
Or he could just walk through the baggage car and into the locomotive (provided the second locomotive is faced forward) and the baggage and locomotive doors aren't locked.
 
Regardless of how he got into the locomotive...I wonder what his motive was? He could just as well have pulled the emergency brake from inside the train....I just don't get it...
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The Lincoln Journal Star just posted an article I thought would be interesting to the folks here, I searched but didn't find if anyone had posted about this delay when it originally happened.

Just before 2 a.m. on Oct. 22, an assistant conductor felt the train braking, searched for what was causing it and found Wilson in the engineer's seat of the follow engine "playing with the controls," Czaplewski wrote.

The conductor, and others, subdued Wilson, then held him and waited for deputies from Furnas and Harlan counties to arrive in Oxford, 23 miles southwest of Holdrege, where the eastbound California Zephyr with about 175 people aboard stopped.
No injuries were reported.
Czaplewski said Wilson, who has a permit in Missouri to carry a concealed handgun, had a loaded .38 caliber handgun in his waistband, a speed loader in his pocket and a National Socialist Movement business card on him when he was arrested.
Click to expand...
I'm not really positive how easy it is to get into the "follow engine", is it accessible from the rest of the train?
 
Oh, thanks! I didn't see this when I searched. Feel free to delete or move, mods.

MODERATOR NOTE: New thread merged with existing thread.
 
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Aside from the logistics of how this individual accessed the trailing engine, there's potentially a lot more going on here. The suspect has been charged with planning a terrorist attack, and "expressed an interest in "killing black people," according to court documents unsealed Wednesday." In addition to the handgun he had on his person, his backpack contained a box of ammunition and additional weapons. The FBI found quite the stash of weapons when they searched his home, too.

So while the incident sort of comes off as comical, we don't really know what he was planning once he brought the train to a stop.
 
Washington Post story on the incident and more information on the man who was arrested: Armed man with white-supremacist ties stopped Amtrak train last year, FBI says.

Covers much the same material as the other news links, but this individual appears to be not very stable. Excerpt:

The conductor on the Amtrak train told Czaplewski that Wilson appeared to be having mood swings and was “lucid, then would start saying crazy things about going to the moon,” the affidavit states. Wilson repeatedly asked whether Amtrak staff members were going to shoot him, the conductor said. In the affidavit, Czaplewski said that a competency hearing for Wilson was held for his state case in Nebraska and he was deemed competent to proceed.
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This could have been a much more serious incident if the crew had not gotten him under control when they did.
 

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