Stafford, VA. Deputies with the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office took a male suspect into custody on Tuesday morning for making threats to passengers of a Virginia Railway Express (VRE) train.

On January 23, 2018 at approximately 7:30 a.m., deputies responded to a call regarding a male subject making threats to passengers on VRE train 312. The incident began when the subject boarded the commuter train at the Fredericksburg Station and continued as the train traveled to Leeland Road Station. Several witnesses heard the threats.

Train conductors contacted the Sheriff’s Office while at Leeland Road Station, and the train and platform were quickly evacuated. When the suspect attempted to get off the train, he attacked a law enforcement officer. He was subsequently taken into custody.

K-9 bomb-detecting units cleared the train and checked the parking lot for potential threats. The train went back to a VRE maintenance and storage facility in Spotsylvania County for further inspection and VRE train 314 was able to pick up the passengers at Leeland Road Station.

Rafael Alejandro Abreu, 35, was arrested and later interviewed by Stafford detectives and an FBI agent. He is incarcerated at Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond on charges of assault on a law enforcement officer and intent to intimidate the civilian population by compelling emergency evacuation of a means of mass transportation.