At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Jim McDonnell said the Sheriff’s Department transit police thwarted “a possible attack” at a Pasadena Metro station after a man caught urinating in public ended up being heavily armed.
Deputies say that Christopher Goodine, 28, was carrying a black duffel bag, “just like anybody would carry to a gym” while inside the Sierra Madre Gold Line Station that contained a cache of weapons including a loaded AR-15 rifle, rope, a machete-type knife, a 40 caliber handgun with extended clips and other weapons, said McDonnell.
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Goodine also carried writings in a “foreign language.” Authorities have not yet connected the suspect to terrorism.
City News Service reports that Goodine is now being held in lieu of $10,000 bail pending a Friday court appearance in Pasadena.
According to a statement from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, “observant deputies” working a foot beat Wednesday afternoon at the station “contacted” the man (presumably after they saw him peeing) and found the kind of weapons bounty typically reserved for a low-level arms dealer. The man in question was in possession of “a loaded handgun restricted for law enforcement use; a loaded, high-power firearm; two loaded, high-capacity magazines; a suppressor; and other dangerous items,” according to the release.
“We were there at the right time, doing what we do every day,” one of the deputies said at the press conference, adding that an officer saw the man urinating, “stopped him, and that’s how we got to this.” There were “probably two people in the area” while the man was urinating who ignored him at the time, according to the deputy.
Authorities reported that the notebook containing unidentified writings that may not have been in English, and that it had “been given off to somebody who can look at it.”
“But for the grace of god we could have had a tragedy today in Los Angeles,” Sheriff Jim McDonnell said.