Locomotive Engineer Derailed Train to Wreck Navy Hospital Ship Mercy Over Coronavirus Suspicions, Feds Say
By Andrew Blankstein ••
NBC Universal, Inc.
A man faces federal charges for trying to derail a train to crash into a US Navy ship that is set aside for coronavirus patients in San Pedro.
Prosecutors charged a locomotive engineer who worked at the Port of Los Angeles with intentionally derailing a train at full speed near the US Navy Hospital Ship Mercy because of suspicions over it and activities surrounding COVID-19, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro was charged with one count under a little known federal statute of train wrecking, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in the incident which took place Tuesday, according to the 10-page criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
After he was arrested, Moreno was held overnight and subsequently turned over to FBI agents Wednesday morning. Prosecutors allege Moreno ran the train off the end of tracks, and crashed through a series of barriers before coming to rest more than 250 yards from the Mercy in an incident captured on video.
The train leaked fuel oil which required clean up by fire and other hazardous materials personnel, but no one was hurt in the incident. A CHP officer who witnessed the crash and took Moreno into custody told authorities he saw the train smash through a barrier at the end of the tracks before plowing through several obstacles including a steel barrier and chain-link fence. It then slid through a parking lot, across another lot filled with gravel, and smashed into a second chain-link fence, according to the affidavit.
Moreno allegedly told the 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," the complaint alleges.
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Empty shelves are pictured at a downtown Los Angeles Whole Foods.
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Empty shelves are pictured at a downtown Los Angeles Whole Foods.
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Empty shelves are pictured at a downtown Los Angeles Whole Foods.
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Empty shelves are pictured at a downtown Los Angeles Whole Foods.
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A student wears a face mask to protect against the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as he leaves the campus of the UCLA college in Westwood, California on March 6, 2020. – Three UCLA students are currently being tested for the COVID-19 (coronavirus) by the LA Departement of Public Health, according to the UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo by MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
They athletic field is empty at Hollywood High School Friday, March 13, 2020, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Los Angeles public schools are scheduled to temporarily close on Monday. The outbreak has already temporarily closed schools in states including Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, Oregon and New Mexico. Cities including, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Seattle, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., also announced public schools would shut down.(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
A man studies on the San Diego State University campus Thursday, March 12, 2020, in San Diego. All classes at San Diego State are scheduled to transition to online courses after March 13, joining other universities taking measures to attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
USC has shifted all undergraduate classes to online-classes until April 14th. Students are being told to evacuate on-campus housing. (Photo by Michael Tseng/NBC)
A shopper walks past empty shelves normally stocked with soaps, sanitizers, paper towels, and toilet paper at a Smart & Final grocery store, March 7, 2020 in Glendale, California. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
The coronavirus panic has caused an empty aisle of fruits and other produce at Trader Joes. (Photo by Michael Duarte/NBC)
A person in a Stormtrooper costume who poses for snapshots with tourists in exchange for tips fist bumps with a passerby, on the Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California March 10, 2020. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
A waiter stands at a restaurant in Monterey Park, Calif., Thursday, March 12, 2020. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
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Be prepared to have your temperature checked if you want to eat at Sichuan Impression in Orange County or at one of its sister restaurants in Alhambra and West Los Angeles. The restaurant owner began checking customers’ temperatures at the door with a hand-held infrared thermometer in late January as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.
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Los Angeles County Public Health director Barbara Ferrer speaks at a press conference on the novel COVID-19 (coronavirus), March 6, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. The department has conducted daily briefings at noon to provide coronavirus updates. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
Unionized hospitality workers apply for unemployment benefits at the Hospitality Training Academy Friday, March 13, 2020, in Los Angeles. Fearing a widespread health crisis, Californians moved broadly Friday to get in front of the spread of the coronavirus, shuttering schools that educate hundreds of thousands of students, urging the faithful to watch religious services online and postponing or scratching just about any event that could attract a big crowd. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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People try to stay warm as they face the elements inside a homeless encampment flooded under a rainstorm across the Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 12, 2020. Experts say that the homeless, who often have health and substance-abuse problems, are exposed to the elements and do not have easy access to hygiene, are more vulnerable to the coronavirus. Some cities are making provisions, so the homeless who contract the virus have a place to recover without spreading the infection further. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Hundreds of shoppers wait in line in the rain to enter a Costco Wholesale store on March 14, 2020 in Glendale, California.
A dinosaur atop the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium wears a face mask next to a sign encouraging people to wash their hands in Hollywood on April 19, 2020, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP) (Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)
A man wearing a mask walks past a dinosaur atop the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium wearing a face mask next to a sign encouraging people to wash their hands in Hollywood on April 19, 2020, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP) (Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)
Moreno, who waived his right to speak to an attorney before being interviewed by investigators, admitted in two post-arrest interviews, that he intentionally ran the train off the track because wanted to bring attention to the government's activities regarding COVID-19, and was suspicious of the U.S.N.S. Mercy.
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In his first interview with the Los Angeles Port Police, Moreno acknowledged that he "did it," saying that he was suspicious of the Mercy and believing it had an alternate purpose related to COVID-19 or a government takeover, the affidavit states.
Moreno also told investigators he acted alone and had not pre-planned the attempted attack. While admitting to intentionally derailing and crashing the train, he said he knew it would bring media attention and "people could see for themselves," referring to the Mercy, according to the affidavit.
In a second interview with FBI agents, Moreno stated that, "he did it out of the desire to 'wake people up,'" according to the affidavit. "Moreno stated that he thought that the U.S.N.S. Mercy was suspicious and did not believe 'the ship is what they say it's for.'"
