FOLEY, Minn. — A 41-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for climbing aboard a BNSF Railway train last year and attacking the engineer with a knife.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Samuel D. Hohman of Sauk Rapids, Minn., was sentenced Wednesday in Benton County District Court after pleading guilty in February to one felony count of second-degree assault in a plea deal. He was also ordered to pay BNSF $13,319 in restitution.
On Sept. 20, 2022, Sauk Rapids police found the train’s engineer near the railroad tracks with blood on his face and hands after responding to a report of a stabbing. According to court documents, the engineer said a man had jumped on the train, wrapped his arms around the engineer’s neck, and told him to speed up. The man pulled a knife out of his bag and stabbed the engineer in the forehead; the engineer then bit the man in the hand and was able to jump off the train.
The train was found stopped in the adjacent community of Sartell. Police found Hohman nearby and a knife in the area, and found wires on the train had been cut.