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Man suspected of breaking into vacant Metrolink train in Fullerton is charged with felonies

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FULLERTON — Felony charges were filed Wednesday against a 27-year-old man accused of forcing his way onto an idled train in Fullerton and assaulting a conductor and another employee.

Easton Deli Bunch is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on one count each of assault with a deadly weapon on a transportation worker, criminal threats and vandalism, all felonies, as well as single misdemeanor counts of tampering with railroad apparatus, petty theft and trespass on railroad property.

Bunch used a pickax and a chain to break into a mostly unoccupied train just before 1:40 p.m. Monday at the station at 120 E. Santa Fe Ave., Fullerton police Sgt. Carin Wright alleged.

The conductor told the man to get off the train, but the suspect refused and “lunged” at him, Wright said. The criminal complaint alleges Bunch also threatened another man on the train.

  • Fullerton police confiscate a pickax that was carried by a man suspected of breaking into a vacant Metrolink train at the Fullerton platform on Monday, March 18, halting rail traffic coming out of the station for about an hour. (Photo courtesy of OC Hawk)

  • Paramedics and police take a man suspected of breaking into a vacant rail car at the Fullerton platform into custody on Monday, March 18. (Photo courtesy of OC Hawk)

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  • Members of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department’s Mental Evaluation Team assist police in Fullerton negotiating with a man armed with a pickax who broke into a vacant Metrolink train on Monday, March 18. (Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Mental Evaluation Team)

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The conductor called police and officers managed to convince the man to put down the ax and chain and surrender just before 3 p.m., Wright said.

He was taken to a local hospital to be checked out before being booked, the sergeant said.