(The Associated Press circulated the following article on January 28.)
GLENDALE, Calif. — Investigators picked through the wreckage of two commuter trains, searching for evidence to build a murder case against the suicidal man who triggered the crash by leaving his SUV on the tracks. Eleven people died and nearly 200 were injured.
Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, was to appear in court Friday to be arraigned on murder charges, with special circumstance allegations meaning he could face the death penalty.
After Alvarez left his car Wednesday morning and stood by as the trains derailed in a fiery chain-reaction crash, he ran to the porch of a nearby home and used scissors to stab himself and slash his wrists, according to reports in two local newspapers.
A woman in the house called 911, and Alvarez told paramedics what happened as he was being rushed to a hospital. They radioed police, who arrested him. It had previously been unclear when Alvarez harmed himself.
A 911 tape revealed the drama moments after the nation’s deadliest rail crash in six years, as an employee at a nearby Costco store reported the disaster and at the same time directed other employees to fight the flames.
“There’s a Metrolink that runs adjacent to the — oh, they need fire extinguishers! Quick! Quick!” she yelled to other workers.
“What’s going on?” asked the dispatcher. “What’s going on, ma’am?”
“The Metrolink derailed right on the side of the building!” she said.
Sixty of the injured were treated at the scene and the rest were taken to hospitals. An incomplete tally Thursday showed at least 23 people remained hospitalized, seven in critical condition, and more than 80 had been released.
Emergency workers officially ended their recovery efforts Thursday after determining there were no more survivors or bodies to be found. They immediately set out on the job of cleaning up. On Friday, the mangled train cars were to be carried off the tracks.
Alvarez, who was under suicide watch at a hospital’s jail ward, was expected to face 11 murder counts with the special circumstance of murder by train derailment — added to state law because thieves once blew up tracks to steal from trains. A special circumstance makes capital punishment a possibility, but prosecutors did not immediately decide whether to seek it.
Defense attorney Eric A. Chase did not plan to comment until after the arraignment, said Dann Novak, senior administrator of Chase Law Group.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said prosecutors were evaluating Alvarez’s mental state in regard to the special circumstance allegation, but he asserted that it was no defense to the charges.
“His despondency doesn’t move me,” Cooley said. “The mere fact that he was a little upset or despondent doesn’t mean he has a defense for anything.”
Police initially described Alvarez, who had been ordered by a court to stay away from his family for allegedly abusing drugs and threatening them, as “deranged.”
At the scene Thursday, police used laser measuring devices to create a digital map of the wreckage. Two large cargo containers were brought in to store evidence.
The tracks were expected to be reopened Monday, Metrolink officials said. Commuters, meanwhile, were taking buses from the Glendale station into downtown Los Angeles’ Union Station.
Separately, a suicidal man who parked his SUV on railroad tracks in Orange County was arrested early Thursday, said Irvine police Cmdr. Dave Freedland, declining to say if it was a copycat situation. The man drove off when police spotted him and, after a chase, a dispatcher talked him out of suicide during a cell phone call.