A 51-year-old McLean woman is being held at an undisclosed mental health facility after she allegedly made bomb threats aboard a Red Line train Monday morning, transit officials said.
Passengers fled the train, and some riders evacuated onto the track bed, eyewitnesses said.
“It was like a stampede,” said Michael Robb, 25, of Gaithersburg, who was aboard the train with his girlfriend. “Nobody could get off. People lost their shoes jumping onto the side of the tracks.”
Authorities closed the Rockville Station for about two hours while K-9 units and other teams searched for explosives. No explosives were found, Metro said, and there were no serious injuries. Passengers were bused to other Metro stops, and delays caused chaos for Red Line riders.
The inbound eight-car train with 250 to 300 passengers was leaving the Rockville Station when a woman in a rail car near the front “got down on her knees” and said: “You killed my family. Now I’m going to kill you all,” Metro Transit Police Deputy Chief Ron Pavlik said at an afternoon news conference.
Metro Transit Police withheld the suspect’s name because she is undergoing a mental health evaluation and has not been charged.
When they heard the woman, passengers pressed the call button for the train operator and one rider called transit police, Metro officials said.
“I was scared to the max,” Robb said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It was a total crisis on the train. . . . I was asking people, ‘What happened? What happened?’ They were just saying, ‘Move! Move! Just run!’
“We thought it was a terrorist attack the way people were moving and screaming,” he said. “I didn’t ask any more questions. I just jumped off and ran.”
The operator stopped the train and walked back to see what was going on, according to Metro officials and riders. Seven of the rail cars were no longer at the platform.
Metro authorities said the train operator followed proper protocol and called in the alleged bomb threat to Metro’s central control.
Metro Transit Police were immediately called to the scene, officials said, but panicked passengers used the emergency-release levers to open the train doors manually, jumped onto the track and began walking toward the Twinbrook Station.
The train operator realized riders were on the track and called Metro’s operations center. The power was quickly shut down, said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
Metro officials said about 35 people walked along the track. Other passengers walked back to the one rail car that was still in the station and exited onto the platform, Metro officials said.
On the outbound track headed to Shady Grove, a handful of passengers were stranded for about 45 minutes when the power was shut down, Metro said. Deborah Kalb, who was headed to jury duty on the train, said they were given few details of what was going on but could “hear dogs barking and sirens going and helicopters circling overhead.”
A few passengers were treated for heat-related complaints and were evaluated at the scene. They declined further medical treatment, Metro said.
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