Crazy guy tries to attack hospital ship

The batE36 M3 guys are coming out. 

https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/train-operator-port-los-angeles-charged-derailing-locomotive-near-us-navy-s-hospital

The CHP officer who witnessed the crash reported seeing “the train smash into a concrete barrier at the end of the track, smash into a steel barrier, smash into a chain-link fence, slide through a parking lot, slide across another lot filled with gravel, and smash into a second chain-link fence,” according to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint. When the CHP officer contacted Moreno, he made a series of spontaneous statements, including, “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.”

I am proud to be from the GREAT State of fruits and nuts !

he went on how the ship was part of a plot to take over the country , or something like that.....

Sounds like he's hit two fents and a crub before. Sheesh.

Very concerning.  Reminds me of the guy who went nuts in the tank on the streets of San Diego years ago. 

the other day the Freeway sign said that the Mercy Ship was not open to the public , 

I wonder how many people went down to the port thinking they needed to get in line for a Corona test !

This story doesn't make geographical sense.

I have a pretty good understanding of the Port of LA, specifically from the water side.  A good friend kept his 39 ft sailboat deep in the Port of LA and I have sailed all through the port many times.  

So, this lead me to wonder where they actually docked the USS Mercy.  This report from Fox 11 in LA has this picture that shows the ship is at the Cruise Ship Terminal.   That seems like a smart place to put it.  Easy access from the roads.  Lots of parking.

The big roof you see sort of under the bride is the building for the ferry lines that run over to Catalina Island.   

The video in the Fox 11 story shows that the rail line would be this line that terminates at Knoll Rd.

If we expand out that view of Knoll Rd...

We can see that the train came to rest sort of under the bridge but not quite to Regan St.  

Here we have a look at the Knoll loop looking toward the cruise ships

Then, at street level and standing here at the edge of the Cruise Terminal...

When you turn around to in the direction from where the train would have been coming, I am not even sure that the train could even see the USS Mercy.  

From here on Knoll Dr

When you spin around, you can hardly see the Cruise Terminal Building and the entire ship is obstructed....

I think it more than safe to say that the USS Mercy was never under any emanate danger.  

In general, this story is hugely fishy.  For what reason is it fishy?  That I have not figured out.  

  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.’”

Ah... It was the SECOND interview with the Feds when he started saying crazy stuff about the ship. They must have got to him. Put thoughts in his head. Or maybe he was high and ran the barricade by accident, then made the story up as an excuse.

John Welsh said:
...

In general, this story is hugely fishy.  For what reason is it fishy?  That I have not figured out.  

Person so eloquently described here as "BatE36 M3" crazy does something illogical...seems perfectly normal to me.  As Dad used to say "KISS" (and I'm not calling you the "S" word, that was directed at me as a boy...)

Edit:  I read this the day after it was posted without realizing it was posted yesterday...the "S" word may still apply to adult me. 

if it wasnt a .gov site, the date alone would make it suspicious...  

EastCoastMojo said:

Sounds like he's hit two fents and a crub before. Sheesh.

Werd.

In reply to 914Driver :

Missed it by that much. 

... I'm going off the rails on the crazy train!...

Or as Little Nicky once said, "the Blizzard always came straight with his messages."

As if the authorities don't have enough to deal with.  Removing a locomotive which isn't remotely close to the tracks is no small undertaking.

"Cleanup to Isle 7".  

Who is Eduardo Moreno article

827 ft

.157 mile or short of two tenths of a mile away.

275.667 yards or nearly 3 football fields away.

In golf terms, two Par 4's away or one Par 5 and one Par 3.  

And, this 827 ft is from where the train ended.  My guess is the train traveled 400 yards.  This would mean he hoped to travel nearly a 1/4 mile.  

It doesn't add up.   Unless, crazy is just crazy.    

I keep telling my wife there's an enormous amount of undiagnosed mental illness in this country.  Crazy don't add up, attempts to explain crazy are even more demented than the crazy itself. 

for my applied vehicle dynamics folks, i guess you could say asphalt is a deformable surface given sufficient normal force : contact patch

In reply to John Welsh :

Plus the steering goes to crap when there are no tracks. 

So this actually happened?  My first impression was that it was an April Fool's joke.  I could see the government using a little light-hearted humor to relax people who are a bit nervous about the whole pandemic thing.

914Driver said:

Quick, #nickdixon, what kind of locomotive is that?

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

While I agree that I could see that, I doubt they would use something as potentially scary or inciting as this

Damn, I'm really glad no one was hurt.  I think this guy will get some help, from inside the system.  I can't imagine he's going to see freedom any time soon.  How long do you get for an act of terror (not sure what else you'd call it) with a train?  The potential for harm is massive.  How much does a locomotive like that weigh and how many carriages did it have, I just see one in the pic, I wonder what the total mass of everything was?

In reply to Duke :

Beached?

Mr_Asa said:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

While I agree that I could see that, I doubt they would use something as potentially scary or inciting as this

I must be de-sensitized.  It just seems funny to me.

Edit:  Is that a GP-40?