BNSF track in Whatcom, Skagit counties offered ‘primo target’ for terrorist attacks
Investigators believe at least some of the 41 attacks on safety equipment along BNSF Railway Company tracks in Whatcom and Skagit counties this year were to protest the construction of a natural gas pipeline across British Columbia through Indigenous land.
Two Bellingham women — Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, and Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23 — were charged Monday, Nov. 30, in federal court in Seattle with terrorist attacks and other violence against a railroad carrier after they allegedly were caught placing a shunt on tracks to disrupt BNSF safety features Saturday night, Nov. 28, near Bellingham, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
Though the release said there have been 41 similar attacks along BNSF track in Whatcom and Skagit county since Jan. 19, Brooks and Reiche have only been charged in the one from Saturday night, charging documents show.
The FBI’s Terrorism Task Force has been investigating the incidents since that first attack, Monday’s release stated.
The first shunting attack was followed three days later on Jan. 22 with a claim of responsibility posted to a website charging documents termed “anarchist.”
The anonymous post titled “Whatcom County, WA: Rail Shut Down In Solidarity With the Wet’suwet’en Fight Against Colonial Invasion” stated that the Jan. 19 attack was in response to Canada working with Fossil Fuel MegaCorp TC Energy to build the Coastal GasLink LNG Pipeline Project.
Opponents of the 416-mile pipeline project say that it would increase damage to the environment and infringe on the rights of First Nations people in British Columbia whose traditional land the pipeline would pass through, according to a CTV News story.
The attacks on the BNSF tracks in Whatcom and Skagit county were designed to keep supplies from reaching British Columbia, according to the anonymous post, which called the rail lines a “primo target for blockages and slow downs in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en” and represent a “clear and accessible bottleneck of supplies from the U.S. to Canada.”
“Inspired by other solidarity actions and our commitment to upholding Indigenous sovereignty and acting where we stand, we disrupted the high volume railway that moves resources from the active ports of Everett, Edmonds, Seattle, and further south to the Blaine border crossing into Canada,” the anonymous Jan. 22 post read. “We were able to interrupt the track circuit used to detect the presence or absence of a train on the tracks. ...
“On a single rail track with a Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) system, this simple action can generate enough confusion in the system to cause big slow downs and bureaucratic delays.”
Shunting the tracks
To cause those delays, shunts were used to disrupt the low-voltage current traveling through the tracks that allows the tracking of trains’ location on the tracks, according to charging documents.
Shunts consist of a wire stretched between and connected to the rails of the track and mimic the electrical signal of a train on the track, documents state. Sensing trains, safety systems prevent trains from entering the area until the shunt has been located and removed. Making matters more difficult, many of the 41 shunts found since Jan. 19 reportedly were covered by rocks.
The placement of shunts didn’t just create delays, documents state — they also created safety hazards. Depending on where they are placed, shunts can interfere with the operation of crossing gates at intersections with roadways and can cause gates to allow vehicle traffic to cross tracks, even with a train approaching.
Almost a quarter of the shunts since Jan. 19 — 10 shunts — were placed on track near enough to a roadway to potentially cause signal and cross arm malfunctions, according to documents. At least two of them are known to have interfered with traffic crossing gates.
Shunts also can cause the automatic braking system on modern trains — known as Positive Train Control — to engage, documents state, which can cause decoupling of cars or even trail derailment.
On the nights of Oct. 11 and 12, multiple shunts were placed in three locations in Whatcom and Skagit counties, according to documents. One of the shunts in Skagit County caused a Positive Train Control to engage, and the sudden emergency braking caused cars to decouple in a residential area. That train reportedly had 12 hazardous material cars containing combustible liquid and flammable gas.
Shunts that have been recovered have the same type of wire and magnets and have been placed along the same sections of track, documents state.
Saturday’s attack
On Saturday, BNSF police received a motion alert from a game camera placed along track just north of Bellingham, charging documents state. The BNSF chief deputy reviewed a photo sent from the camera and saw a person trespassing along the tracks and another item or person sitting on the tracks just north of the railroad intersection with Cliffside Drive.
BNSF police contacted the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office to investigate further, documents state, and then checked the Train Management and Dispatch System and noticed a “track indication” appear and disappear at approximately 11:41 p.m. Such signals usually indicate that the track is obstructed, and a shunt replicates that indication.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the area and found Brooks and Reiche in the area, documents state. The pair reportedly first attempted to run, but stopped when deputies ordered them to do so and they were detained for trespassing on railroad property.
Reiche told deputies that she and Brooks were looking along the track to find her keys, documents state, but neither had a flashlight or phone to help them look. Reiche reportedly said her phone was left in her car, which was parked nearby with a “co-op” sticker on it. Deputies also found on the car a sticker of a map of the United States overlaid with the text “Indigenous Land,” according to documents.
Deputies located a wire shunt between the tracks in the area where Brooks and Reiche had been seen, according to documents, and a brown paper bag that Reiche was carrying contained rubber gloves, a piece of black insulated copper wire and a Makita drill with a wheel-shaped brush attachment. Previous shunting incidents showed that similar insulated wire had been used and rail had been scuffed to allow for a better connection.
A BNSF signal maintainer arrived on scene and said that the location of the shunt likely would have interfered with the functioning of the Cliffside Drive railway crossing.
Brooks and Reiche were booked into the Whatcom County Jail on Sunday, Nov. 29, each on suspicion of malicious injury to railroad property and second-degree criminal trespassing. Jail records show both were transferred into federal custody on Monday.
After making their first appearance in court and being charged with making a terrorist attack and other violence against a railroad carrier Monday, Brooks and Reiche were released pending a Dec. 14 hearing, according to Associated Press reports, and their attorneys declined to comment Monday afternoon.
“These crimes endanger our community,” U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in the release. “I commend the agents from Customs and Border Protection, FBI, BNSF Police, and state and local partners who prioritized stopping this criminal conduct.”
The charge carries a prison term of up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine, according to Monday’s release.
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 12:50 PM.
