The Los Angeles Port may need a good accident lawyer following a bizarre attempted train attack on the hospital ship USNS Mercy. The train’s engineer, Eduardo Moreno, 44, allegedly stated in two police interviews that he derailed the train he was conducting in the Los Angeles Port in an attempt to hit the Mercy.
When asked why he would do this, the engineer told police that he was suspicious the Mercy and didn’t believe the ship’s actual goal was to address the COVID-19 pandemic. “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,’” reads the criminal charges against the engineer.
The Mercy is, however, on a mercy mission. The ship is a floating hospital, loaded with beds and medical equipment. It’s docked in LA’s port in order to help address the likely shortage of hospital beds as the region battles the novel coronavirus.
COVID-19, as a novel virus, has been overwhelming hospitals in the hardest-hit areas. Hospital ships, like the Mercy and the USNS Comfort, have been deployed to particularly dense population centers to assist those overwhelmed hospitals. The boats aren’t being used to treat COVID-19 patients, but are instead functioning as overflow for other cases.
It’s unclear what, exactly, Moreno finds so suspicious about the Mercy. According to an interview with police, he said his actions were intended to “wake people up” to whatever nefarious scheme the government has. Moreno didn’t specify in what way a hospital ship could be at the center of a conspiracy.
According to the interview, Moreno seemed convinced that his actions were just. “The whole world is watching. I had to,” Moreno stated to the police. “People don’t know what’s going on here. Now they will.”
A patrol officer at the port witnesses the train derailing, stating that he saw the train bust through several barriers, one of them made of concrete, at full speed. The train then slid across a parking lot, coming very close to three occupied vehicles. It stopped roughly two hundred and fifty yards short of the Mercy. The patrol officer made the arrest of Moreno on the scene.
The engineer is being investigated by the FBI’s joint terrorism task squad. If found guilty, he could face up to twenty years in prison. He could be charged with domestic terrorism, even though no one was hurt by his attempted attack.
