The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Shots were fired at an Amtrak train carrying 167 passengers from Newport News, Va., to Washington on Thursday, an Amtrak spokeswoman said. Two bullets hit the locomotive but no one was injured.
The engineer of Amtrak train No. 76 reported hearing shots at 4:15 p.m. EDT as the train was traveling through Richmond, Va., spokeswoman Karina Van Veen said. The crew checked the train in Richmond and found nothing wrong, but a more thorough check in Washington revealed two bullet holes in the window of the locomotive.
``The bullets apparently bounced out, but the holes were there,’' Van Veen said. None of the passengers was aware of the shooting, Van Veen said.
The engineer sits on the right side of the locomotive, and the bullet holes were in the left window.
The engineer reported seeing several men near the tracks outside a housing development when the shots were fired, said Lt. Robert Gray, a Richmond police spokesman. But the report went through a chain of command at Amtrak before being relayed to police.
By the time officers got there, they found no evidence of a shooting and no witnesses, Gray said.