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.
Share this article
