Sheriff’s recruit in grave condition; one of 25 trainees hit by car in South Whittier; driver arrested
Updated 9:29 am, Sunday, July 15, 2013
A man suspected of trying to rob a train during an early-morning raid last month allegedly jumped on top of the train and threatened to throw the car over a platform wall, reports say.
Deputies said the man pulled a gun and demanded money from a trainee after learning he was in a gang who had robbed a casino in San Ysidro.
According to a report from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, the man jumped onto the tracks at the tracks’ Southern Connecting Line near U.S. Highway 101 in south Whittier in the early-morning hours of June 19. Deputies said he refused to leave, and they ordered him to get off.
Deputies said the suspect got down on the ground, pointed the gun at them and pointed the barrel at the trainee, who was inside the train with his hands against the back wall of the train.
When deputies asked the trainee who the man was, he said he didn’t know the man, but deputies said the man told him, “I’m going to get you.”
The trainee refused to give any money.
Sheriff’s Deputy David L. Johnson said two other trainees inside the train saw the man, but said he got away.
Deputies said that the man was taken into custody and that he was taken to Sutter Regional Medical Center in San Bernardino with multiple fractures, lacerations and swelling as a result of the incident. He was in serious condition Sunday, officials said.
Deputies said he may face additional charges in the matter.
Deputies also said a witness of the incident, a woman who was on the platform at the time, confirmed that the man had jumped on the tracks and had pointed a gun at trainees.
The woman reported that she yelled for the man to get off the train and that a trainee standing on the tracks yelled back that the man had gotten on the tracks.
“We need every one of you that got on this train to come forward and get this guy off the tracks,” the woman said. “If you don’t come forward and get him off the tracks,