SEATTLE — Federal authorities in Seattle have charged two people with a terrorist attack on train tracks, suggesting they were motivated by opposition to the construction of a natural gas pipeline across British Columbia when they interfered with the operation of a railroad in Washington.
Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, and Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23, both of Bellingham, are accused of placing “shunts” on BNSF Railway tracks Saturday night. Such devices consist of a wire strung across the tracks, mimicking the electrical signal of a train. The devices can cause trains to automatically brake and can disable railroad crossing guards, investigators said in a complaint filed Monday.
The pair are charged only in Saturday night’s incident, but there have been 41 such cases involving the BNSF tracks since January, with a message claiming responsibility posted on an anarchist website early this year, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force said.
In one, shunts were placed in three locations in northwest Washington on Oct. 11, prompting emergency brakes to engage on a train that was hauling hazardous materials and flammable gas. The braking caused a bar connecting the train’s cars to fail; the cars became separated and could have derailed, U.S. Attorney Brian Moran said in a news release.