Family of man fatally shot in January on Kansas City-bound train sues Amtrak for $100M
The family of a man killed while riding a Kansas City-bound Amtrak train is suing the national railway company, contending its train should have stopped after the shooting unfolded and its security policy is too lax.
Richie Terell Aaron Jr., 30, of Independence, was fatally shot the night of Jan. 14 as the Missouri River Runner train had pulled into the Lee’s Summit station. The alleged shooter, Marquise Webb, exited there and the train continued on toward its next stop in Independence.
A lawyer representing Aaron’s widow and three young children wrote in a civil lawsuit that Amtrak personnel disregarded pleas from other passengers to wait at the Lee’s Summit stop or halt the train somewhere else along its route. Aaron was pronounced dead by emergency medical workers when they were first able to see him at the next station, roughly 35 minutes later, the lawsuit charges.
“Despite continued pleas by the passengers to stop the train, Amtrak personnel did not oblige, instead continuing to Independence, Missouri while Decedent lay bleeding and dying on the train,” the lawyer wrote in the civil complaint, filed Friday in the Western District of Missouri.
The lawsuit accuses the passenger railway service of making “no effort” to connect Aaron with emergency services at any point. Amtrak also failed to properly screen passengers or put in place security measures that would prevent firearms from coming aboard, the lawsuit charges.
Amtrak did not immediately reply to The Star’s request for comment. Under its policy, the federally subsidized passenger rail provider requires that passengers transporting firearms keep them unloaded and in locked containers with their checked luggage.
Webb, 21, of Kansas City, is accused of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Aaron’s killing. He faces those charges along with unlawful weapon use and vehicle hijacking in Jackson County.
Webb allegedly fled the train from the Lee’s Summit stop, carjacked a man at gunpoint and drove home to Kansas City.
Detectives focused on Webb as the suspected shooter based on witness accounts and by looking over the train’s passenger list. They also tracked his cellphone, finding that Webb deviated from the train’s course at the Lee’s Summit stop, according to charging documents.
Webb was arrested two weeks later following an armed standoff with Kansas City police. He is being held in the Jackson County jail on a $500,000 cash-only bond.
Webb is also named as a defendant in the family’s civil lawsuit. The family is seeking at least $100 million in damages.
