PHILADELPHIA _ Brandon Bostian, the engineer operating an Amtrak train that derailed in 2015, was taken into custody at 10:15 a.m. at the Philadelphia police department's 9th district station.
Bostian, wearing a maroon polo shirt and jeans, was cuffed by investigators from the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and escorted into the department.
Bostian was accompanied by his lawyer, Robert Goggin, and said nothing to the scrum of reporters who descended on him as he entered the station.
On Friday afternoon, Attorney General Josh Shapiro charged the 34-year-old engineer with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count for each of those who died in the crash, and numerous counts of reckless endangerment. The charges were filed just hours before the two-year statute of limitations would have run out, barring criminal charges against Bostian.
"We will make our case in court; I think we have a strong case to make," Shapiro said on Monday in Harrisburg. "But I think what's important here is that we thought it was vitally important that someone spoke up for the victims and tried to bring about justice for the victims. And that's exactly what we did with the array of charges that we issued."
The complaint, filed initially with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, stated Bostian had traveled the route many times before, was aware his train carried hundreds of passengers and crew, and was well familiar with speed limits on the route as he accelerated into a curve that caused the derailment. He had to have known the dangers his actions posed, according to the complaint.
Philadelphia's District Attorney's Office had just last week declined to prosecute Bostian, saying there was not enough evidence to support a reckless endangerment charge. But civil attorneys representing victims of the May 12, 2015, derailment pursued another route to charges. A criminal complaint was brought Wednesday by the father and husband of Rachel Jacobs, a young mother who died in the derailment of Amtrak Train 188.
The District Attorney's Office rejected that complaint early Thursday, and Jacobs' family went to court to obtain an order requiring the office to charge Bostian.
