Passenger on Coast Starlight fatally shot by police officer on Christmas

A disturbance aboard the Amtrak train had been reported in Mount Shasta.

A passenger on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight was fatally shot by a police officer who boarded the train in Mount Shasta because of a report of a disturbance.

An Amtrak assistant conductor was wounded in the shooting early Christmas morning.

Mount Shasta’s police department said the encounter began around 12:30 a.m. on a train that was stopped near the Lake Street track crossing.

According to Amtrak documents obtained by Redding TV station KRCR, a passenger on the train had been acting erratically. A witness told the station that the passenger struggled with an officer, who tased him and then fired eight to 10 shots.

The man who was killed was identified by the state attorney general’s office as Nicholas Detweiler. No age or city of residence was given.

The assistant conductor was reportedly shot twice and was treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

The southbound train, on a run from Seattle to Los Angeles, had left Klamath Falls, Ore., around 10 p.m. and was scheduled to arrive in Redding at 2:30 a.m. and in Emeryville at 8:30 a.m. The witness told KRCR that the train was delayed seven hours because of the shooting.

The incident falls under the directive of a state law that requires the attorney general’s office to investigate all fatal shootings of unarmed people by law enforcement officers.

The Mount Shasta shooting was the year’s 23rd on the list of cases being investigated under AB 1506. The full list since the law took effect in July 2021 has 52 cases. Reports have been issued for four of them, all stating that no criminal charges against the officer were warranted.