An Amtrak Downeaster bound for Boston was the train that struck and killed a man in Portland on Sunday, but no one aboard the train apparently saw the unidentified 54-year-old man get struck as the train passed near St. John Street, police said Tuesday.
Although police have confirmed the man’s identity and believe he was homeless and living in the Portland area, investigators have not released his name publicly because they are trying to contact family members who live in a South American country, said Portland Police Lt. Robert Martin.
“We don’t know if he has any family in the country,” Martin said. ” “We’re working with consulates to see if they can help us with family notification.”
Martin said that the man did not have official identification on him, but investigators found papers with his name and began to search their records. Although police had no documented contact with someone by that name in recent years, one officer in the department remembered the name from a recent interaction, and police used body camera footage of the conversation between the officer and the man to confirm his identity.
“It was a routine contact, it wasn’t anything documented (such as a summons), but luckily one of our officers remembered having contact with him,” Martin said. “He was in a fingerprint database, so we were able to match that.”
It is still unclear what circumstances led to him being on the tracks and why he was struck.
At first, police did not know whether a freight train or passenger train struck the man, but video footage from somewhere aboard the Downeaster confirmed that the passenger train was the one that struck him as he walked under the Interstate 295 overpass near 400 St. John Street in Portland at about 3:30 p.m.
If the man’s family cannot be contacted, the city of Portland will pay for his burial, Martin said.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
