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Alleged Amtrak Terrorist Faces Federal Gun Charges

By George Khoury, Esq. on February 06, 2018 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Headlines from the beginning of the year detailed the unsealed federal domestic terrorism charges against Taylor Michael Wilson, and recently, additional federal gun charges have been heaped upon the defendant.

In October 2017, Wilson boarded an Amtrak train in California, headed home to Missouri. However, while the train was in Nebraska, train authorities discovered Wilson in one of the engine cars of the train playing with the controls after applying the emergency break. Wilson was armed, but Amtrak staff were able to restrain him until law enforcement arrived.

Domestic Terrorism on a Train

Wilson is accused of violating 18 U.S.C. section 1992 (a)1 and (b)1. The code section prohibits "terrorist attacks and other violence against railroad carriers and against mass transportation systems on land, on water, or through the air." Section (a)1 specifically prohibits attempting to "wreck, derail, set fire to, or disable railroad on-track equipment or a mass transportation vehicle." Section (b)1 make the charge an aggravated one if there are passengers or employees on board at the time of an offense.

Wilson is alleged to be a white supremacist that seriously talked about murdering African Americans. His former roommate provided an affidavit which included several troubling allegations relating to Wilson's activities. After his arrest, a search of Wilson's home resulted in investigators discovering a false wall hiding a veritable arsenal, as well as various white supremacist literature.

Federal Gun Charges

As a result of investigators finding Wilson's weapons cache, and Wilson's own father giving several of his son's weapons to the FBI, additional federal weapons charges were filed against him in the federal court in Missouri. Those charges specifically relate to a fully automatic weapon which was unregistered, as well as another firearm that had been illegally modified.

If convicted, especially on the terrorism charges, Wilson could be looking at decades behind bars.

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