San Pedro engineer suspected of intentionally derailing train near USNS Mercy

A San Pedro train operator was arrested on suspicion of running a locomotive at full speed at the end of the rail tracks near the USNS Mercy this week, officials said Wednesday, April 1.

Eduardo Moreno, 44, an engineer based at the Port of Los Angeles, was arrested Wednesday morning, the day after a train car came off the tracks in San Pedro, Department of Justice officials said. He was charged on suspicion of one count of train wrecking, officials said.

“Moreno admitted in two separate interviews with law enforcement authorities that he intentionally derailed and crashed the train near the Mercy,” the Department of Justice said in a Wednesday statement.

Moreno was not a Port of Los Angeles employee, agency spokesman Phillip Sanfield said, but reportedly was an employee of Pacific Harbor Line, the rail line that works inside the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex.

A representative for Pacific Harbor Line could not immediately be reached.

The Navy hospital ship came to dock at San Pedro on Friday, to help ease the burden that local hospitals are carrying due to the coronavirus pandemic. Patients who aren’t believed to have COVID-19 were expected to be brought by ambulance starting Saturday.

No one was injured in the Tuesday afternoon incident, but the crash caused a moderate diesel gas leak, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said.

When Moreno ran the train off the tracks, the locomotive crashed through a series of barriers before coming to rest more than 250 yards from the USNS Mercy, according to the Department of Justice. Surveillance footage from the scene showed that Moreno also lit a flare from the locomotive’s cab, officials said.

After the train came to a stop, Moreno fled the scene, but a nearby California Highway Patrol officer, who witnessed the crash, took him into custody shortly after, the Department of Justice said.

When the officer had him in custody, Moreno allegedly told him “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,” according to the Department of Justice.

The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and Port of Los Angeles Police are leading the investigation.

In an interview with police, Moreno allegedly said the hospital ship was suspicious and believed it had an alternate purpose related to COVID-19, such as a “government takeover,” the Department of Justice said.

Moreno could face up to 20 years in federal prison for the train wrecking charge.