The Great PC Train Robbery By Lloyd Billingsley

On April 16, a Monday, passengers aboard the last Amtrak train of the day back from the Bay Area wondered why the engine ground to a stop as it approached the I Street bridge over the Sacramento River. They didn’t know that five people stood on the tracks, gang members among them, throwing rocks at the engineer, who stopped the train. The attackers dragged him out, demanded his wallet and cell phone, then beat him senseless with a bottle and a fire extinguisher. They also attacked the train's conductor. The engineer, with head and internal injuries, was taken to hospital. The train finally crossed the river to the Sacramento station under the control of a student conductor.

Train robberies were common in the wild west but are now practically unknown. By any journalistic standard this one was Big News, page-one material, especially with the gang involvement. The attack happened at about 10:15 pm, plenty of time for next-day coverage in the Sacramento Bee, the only daily in California's capital. A lot of people ride Amtrak too and would certainly want to know if gang members had robbed a train and nearly killed the engineer.

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