LINCOLN, Neb. — An armed Missouri man who stopped an Amtrak train in southwest Nebraska in October has links to a white supremacist group and had an interest in “killing black people” according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.
Taylor Michael Wilson, 26, of St. Charles, was charged in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Nebraska, with terrorism attacks and other violence against railroad carriers and mass transportation systems, The Lincoln Journal Star reported.
In an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint, FBI Special Agent Monte Czaplewski said there was probable cause to believe that electronic devices and firearms owned by Wilson “have been used for or obtained in anticipation of engaging in or planning to engage in criminal offenses against the United States.”
Just before 2 a.m. Oct. 22, an assistant conductor felt the train braking, searched for the cause and found Wilson in the engineer's seat of the follow engine “playing with the controls,” Czaplewski wrote.
The conductor and others subdued Wilson, then held him and waited for deputies. No injuries were reported, the Journal Star reported.
Czaplewski said Wilson, who has a permit in Missouri to carry a concealed handgun, had a loaded .38-caliber handgun in his waistband, a speed loader in his pocket and a National Socialist Movement business card on him when he was arrested.
In the newly unsealed federal case, Czaplewski wrote that investigators had found videos and PDF files on Wilson's phone of a white supremacist banner over a highway, as well as other alt-right postings and documents related to how to kill people, the Journal Star reported.
He said an acquaintance contacted by the FBI said Wilson had been acting strange since June and had joined a neo-Nazi group he found while researching white supremacy forums online.
An informant told the FBI that Wilson has expressed an interest in "killing black people" and others besides whites, the Star Journal reported. The FBI also suspects Wilson was responsible for a road rage incident in April 2016 in St. Charles where a man pointed a gun at a black woman for no apparent reason while driving on Interstate 70, Czaplewski said.
Wilson now is in federal custody. He was arrested Dec. 23, one day after the complaint was filed under seal in federal court in Nebraska.
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