Shooting at Dallas Union Station, Texas Eagle involved

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RobertB

RobertB

Train Attendant
Joined
Apr 26, 2011
Messages
88
Location
Union Station, Dallas
There's a breaking story going on at Union Station in Dallas. The train platform is closed, and the Texas Eagle (can't tell which direction) is not going anywhere. Apparently, an off-duty police officer was shot in the hand... the alleged assailant was shot by someone with much better aim, and is dead.

Here's a link to the Dallas Morning News blog with the latest posts. The newspaper's headquarters is across the plaza from Union Station:

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/12/breaking-news-possible-shootin.html

Live video is available (though I haven't looked at it, at work) from TV station WFAA Ch 8, which is also next door to Union Station:

http://www.wfaa.com/

(Sorry I haven't been back to this board in a while... had a great honeymoon trip on Amtrak in October thanks to suggestions from y'all!)
 
Yikes. I guess 2011 still isn't quite done crapping on Amtrak. Hope they managed to get the right guy and that everyone else is safe. Would be nice if Amtrak could have some positive news once in a while.
 
The dallasnews.com blog was just updated to note that it's indeed the northbound train. They said, "The Amtrak train was scheduled to leave Dallas at 3:40 p.m., bound for Chicago. The shooting call came in at 3:48 p.m."

So, if the train was *due* at 3:40 and the call came at 3:48, then the call came at least a half hour before the train *arrived*, right? ;)

Union Station is open for local rail service again, but no word on the Amtrak train.
 
17:06 CST EB Eagle still sitting in station.

UnPac freight sitting.

DART light rail now running.

Local TV reports altercation on Eagle from "argument about a seat."

Three people shot, one dead, DPD officer wounded in hand.
 
The Chief said:
Local TV reports altercation on Eagle from "argument about a seat."

Three people shot, one dead, DPD officer wounded in hand.
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Where is that guy who was suggesting passengers on Amtrak trains should be allowed to carry weapons?
 
:eek: WOW! A Shoot Out on the Eagle over a Seat, guess the Full Trains are becoming a problem! :wacko: Be interesting to see all the details once the FULL story comes out, three persons shot sounds pretty Serious if the problem was over a Seat on the Train :rolleyes: , hope someone in the Dallas Area will keep us posted!

UPDATE: Googling up this story reveals (It's FOX Local Station) that one is dead (the shooter), two slightly wounded (Undercover DPD Narcotics Detective and an "Innocent Bystander"!) There is supposedly a Bus bridge to the next DART/TRE Station and #22 is still sitting there as Passengers that were witnesses are being questioned by DPD!
 
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Texan Eagle said:
The Chief said:
Local TV reports altercation on Eagle from "argument about a seat."

Three people shot, one dead, DPD officer wounded in hand.
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Where is that guy who was suggesting passengers on Amtrak trains should be allowed to carry weapons?
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Based on your implication it would be important to know who did what to whom and when. With the very limited information available here, I could come up scenarios to point the finger at anyone involved. Patience is called for.
 
I knew the Eagle was going to lose it and shoot somebody one of these days.
 
leemell said:
Based on your implication it would be important to know who did what to whom and when. With the very limited information available here, I could come up scenarios to point the finger at anyone involved. Patience is called for.
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Yes, how about people cool it on the political and social commentary postings until more is known about the shooting incident. The first news reports often contain incorrect information. Can take a day or two - or even longer - to get more reliable reports on what happened.
 
Update 18:15 TV interview ABC 8 Dallas PD Deputy Chief Randy Blankenbaker:

"Three plainclothes narcotics officers were conducting an inspection on Amtrak train at UnSta. They approached a suspicious male. This suspect was in possession of a handgun. A confrontation occurred that resulted in shots being fired.

Suspect died at scene."

Developing,,,

---------

Update 6 o'clock from FOX 4 News reporter at Dallas Union Station:

Undercover narcotics officers "recently have been working Union Station." They "engaged man in station," and "followed him back onto the Amtrak train." That's where the shooting started.

Innocent bystander hit in shoulder (apparently a PAX). Three officers involved in shooting, one was shot in hand. Both taken to Baylor Hospital. Brother of PAX who was shot in shoulder gave brief interview. This guy, in his 20s, said he was sitting in SSL, then headed to his room (he said "cabin," interestingly) when he heard his bro had been shot.

No mention of earlier "seat argument" report, which was from NBC 5 reporter.

Developing,,,

Oh, and we had snow west of Fort Worth this morning,,,
 
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The latest (5:13pm) [Edit: maybe not so latest] from WFAA is that it was an undercover drug bust -- ON the train -- gone bad. The report still says that the cop who was shot in the hand was an off-duty Dallas police officer. And apparently both of the other shooting victims were suspects: one with non-life-threatening injuries, and one whose life is technically no longer under threat -- because it has already ended, quite abruptly. At least one other non-injured person was led off the train in handcuffs.

Here's a quote from one passenger:

Witnesses at the scene said the incident came out of nowhere.
"I was looking down at my phone and all of the sudden I heard, 'Get off me; get off me,' and then 'pop, pop, pop, pop," one witness said. "I hit the ground and then ran off the train."
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Apropos of nothing, it appears that the only guns used in the incident belonged to a bad guy and a cop. And I can't really figure out how adding several more well-armed individuals would have helped the situation. I can, however, see several scenarios where an undercover cop (remember, he would look like a "bad guy") gets caught in the crossfire.
 
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Now this makes you wonder, and again it is early in the story, if the perps were pax or intended pax on the Eagle or simply fled to there when the bust started to go down.....
 
I'm suspecting that they were intended passengers. First of all, there have been enough cases where something "interesting" happened on a train and law enforcement had to be involved (either ICE or otherwise). Second, there's the fact that they followed him back onto the train (I'll assume that "back onto the train" could be in error and that he hadn't been on there). If the suspect was fleeing towards the train, I'm left wondering why things were allowed to get to the train unless things started near it. The platform area at Dallas Union Station is pretty open from what I call (the DART/TRE tracks are between the Amtrak tracks and the station), so I'd have thought they would've tried to stop things before they got onboard. The best argument against this is a crowded platform...but I'm not sure that a crowded train is better in any way, shape, or form.
 
heres the full passenger quote from KDAF CW33 news station

"There was a crowd of people at the front of the car and there was a black dude sitting in his seat and these white dudes were like just b.s.-ing with him like, 'Hey, can we sit by you. The car's starting to fill up,' and this, that and the other. I looked down at my phone and all of a sudden I hear, 'Get off me! Get off me!' then pop, pop, pop and I hit the ground," one witness said.
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Try this one from teh Dallas Morning News for what seems to be somewhat better information:

www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20111205-one-killed-in-union-station-shooting-dallas-police-officer-one-of-two-injured.ece

Three plainclothes narcotics officers were conducting a routine inspection on the train, which was bound for Chicago, when they spotted a "suspicious male" about 4 p.m., Dallas Police Deputy Chief Randy Blankenbaker said.
"This suspect was in possession of a handgun and a confrontation occurred that resulted in shots being fired," Blankenbaker said

. . . .

Kevin James . . . saw several men approach the man sitting in the seat in front of him as if they were looking specifically for him, he said. It appeared the men asked the passenger for identification and whether they could search him, James said.

"He took the gun out and was just firing randomly," James said. "There were five or six gunshots."
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Several Dallas stations are saying they will have updates later tonight.
 
Update 10 o'clock news

WFAA ABC Ch 8 reports Amtrak rented three buses to move some PAX, and "the even flew some people on to Chicago."

TV station also reported "Amtrak's Top Cop" was in Dallas at a meeting. He came to Union Station and met with some PAX and handed some his biz card.

((That probably would be John O'Connor, Amtrak VP/Chief of Police.)) No. 22 EB Eagle departed at 9:27 p.m.

PAX eyewitness reports indicate rounds struck Superliner interior, including one seatback.

Stephen Malone Jr., 32, of Waterford, Mich, named as decedent by Dallas County Medical Examiner.

This was lead story on two of four network local channels tonight at 10. Other two channels led with weather (North Texas snow and freeze), and then the Amtrak shooting story.
 
Lucky me, I was on the Eagle the day before.

Interestingly we had quite a few issues with people smoking "cigarettes of a non legal nature" on our run.Maybe the problems we had prompted the cops to get more involved.
 
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