To help relieve pressure on local hospitals, President Donald Trump deployed two hospital ships to California and New York.
But, according to the Department of Justice, a train engineer in California believed that something nefarious was afoot and derailed a train to try to attack the hospital ship U.S.N.S. Mercy to expose what he thought was “suspicious” activity.
On Tuesday afternoon, Eduardo Moreno ran his train off the end of the tracks to attack the ship, the department said in a release.
“Moreno ran the train off the end of tracks, and crashed through a series of barriers before coming to rest more than 250 yards from the Mercy. No one was injured in the incident, and the Mercy was not harmed or damaged in any way.”
He was caught as he tried to flee the scene. And after he was caught, Moreno reportedly began making several 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.”
In two interviews with law enforcement after the incident, he reportedly admitted he “did it.”
The release continued to state that Moreno was under the belief that the Mercy was deployed to Los Angeles for an “alternate purpose,” the press release reads. He reportedly said he believed the ship could be part of a government take over plot.
“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,’” the release added.
Additionally, Moreno reportedly said that he ran the train off the tracks “out of the desire to ‘wake people up,’” the affidavit stated.
Moreno, who said he acted alone, is now facing a train wrecking charge, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.