Nearly three years after Mount Shasta police officer Jeremiah Capurro fatally shot 32-year-old Nicholas Detweiler aboard an Amtrak train on Christmas morning 2023, attorneys for the city and the rail agency are telling a federal judge the shooting was lawful self-defense, not the excessive force alleged by the dead man's mother. Detweiler, of Rio Nido in Sonoma County, died in the train aisle after Siskiyou County sheriff's deputies performed CPR, and his mother Julia Detweiler has spent the past two years pursuing a wrongful death case against Mount Shasta and Amtrak.
Defense Says Officer Feared Blacking Out
Mount Shasta and Amtrak filed motions for summary judgment on Oct. 16 in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, arguing the evidence does not support Julia Detweiler's allegations about her son's death, according to federal court records cited by The Press Democrat. Mount Shasta's attorneys say Detweiler was armed with brass knuckles, ignored lawful orders, endangered a train conductor and exhibited behavior that required deadly force, according to the city's court motion. The motion also says Capurro felt dazed and thought he was close to blacking out during the confrontation, and that he was later told at a hospital emergency room that he had suffered a concussion.
According to Mount Shasta's motion, Detweiler put conductor Bruce Garrett in what a reasonable officer would perceive as a chokehold, and the filing acknowledges at least one passenger was seated just a couple of feet from the two men during the struggle. Capurro fired his stun gun twice and struck Detweiler with a baton within 90 seconds of first speaking to him, before shooting him six times, per the same court filing. Four of those shots came after Detweiler allegedly swung at Garrett, and two more after the men fell to the ground, the motion states; two of the shots also struck Garrett.
What Body-Camera Footage Showed
Body-camera footage described by the Press Democrat in an earlier report shows Capurro waking Detweiler, firing a stun gun at close range, swinging a baton and then drawing his pistol before the gunfire began. Authorities previously said Detweiler had ignored commands and attacked Garrett, forcing the officer to fire in self-defense, the newspaper reported. Garrett was struck or grazed by two bullets during the shooting, according to that account.
Amtrak employees reported that Detweiler had been bothering other passengers before the officer boarded the train in Mount Shasta to investigate, and Detweiler had reportedly planned to transfer to a bus to Santa Rosa once he reached Emeryville. Amtrak's attorneys say Garrett was properly trained and acted lawfully while defending others, and the agency denies violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. Amtrak's motion states that the company and Garrett sought Detweiler's removal from the train because he brandished a weapon and threatened passengers and employees, not because of any disability, and that Garrett had de-escalated two prior encounters with Detweiler before handing the matter to law enforcement.
Lawsuit Alleges Wrongful Death and ADA Violations
Julia Detweiler filed her federal wrongful death lawsuit against Amtrak and Mount Shasta officials in late 2024, alleging excessive force, negligence, denial of medical care, wrongful death and violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The defendants filed answers to her complaint in early 2025 and the sides have since conducted discovery, including interviews and the exchange of evidence. Capurro testified in March that he was concerned a bag involved in the encounter contained weapons.
Julia Detweiler's attorney may file a response to the summary-judgment motions before scheduled hearings. Amtrak's motion is expected to go before a federal judge in early November, while Mount Shasta is set to present its case toward the end of December. If the motions are rejected, the lawsuit may go before a jury in March 2027, according to court records.
Conflicting Accounts of the Night Detweiler Boarded
Accounts differ on exactly when Detweiler boarded the train. SFGATE has reported he boarded the Coast Starlight in Klamath Falls, Oregon, around 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve, while the Press Democrat's earlier report placed his boarding on Christmas morning as he traveled to see his mother in Sonoma County. A witness also told KRCR that the officer fired eight to 10 shots, a figure that conflicts with the six shots described in body-camera footage cited by multiple reports.
Officer's Career Continued After Leave
Capurro was placed on administrative leave following the shooting and was later reinstated, before leaving to work for the Yreka Police Department by August 2025. He and three other Mount Shasta officers were later named in a separate federal lawsuit filed in 2025 by the family of Matthew Elkin, a 36-year-old man who died in April 2024 after a mental health emergency. That family alleges officers responded twice to Elkin's requests for help but did little to assist him, and that he was found dead the next morning with a ruptured aorta and spinal trauma; according to court records, that lawsuit remains ongoing.
Garrett, the conductor injured in the Detweiler shooting, reached a settlement in his own lawsuit against Mount Shasta and Amtrak in 2025. Separately, the California Attorney General's Office has said it is investigating the Mount Shasta shooting, and the case was still listed among the office's open matters as of Oct. 21, under the office's independent review authority for officer-involved shootings.
