TRENTON, N.J. – A South Florida man has been indicted in New Jersey after bringing a trove of weapons aboard an Amtrak train earlier this year, that state’s attorney general announced on Wednesday.
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Jeffrey O. Kennerk, 34, of Fort Lauderdale, is facing a bevy of weapons-related charges in the Garden State.
Authorities said Kennerk came to law enforcement’s attention on Jan. 3 when a New Jersey Transit Police Department officer spotted an “unattended black and white zebra print suitcase” in front of a McDonald’s at Newark Penn Station.
Police searched the bag and “found a Glock handgun case” containing “a Girsan Regard MC handgun with a fully loaded 18-round magazine,” a news release states
It also contained an AR-style magazine and several boxes of ammunition, and a black AK-47 with “one round loaded in the chamber and multiple loaded magazines,” authorities said.
Authorities said surveillance video showed Kennerk getting on a train bound for Virginia.
Police said they stopped and boarded the train in Trenton, New Jersey and questioned Kennerk, who “showed the officers a valid Amtrak ticket for a different train and said he had boarded the wrong train.”
“Before that train arrived, the officers in Trenton were notified about a person of interest wanted for weapons possession in Newark and saw Kennerk about to board another Amtrak train,” the release states. “Before he could board the train, Kennerk was arrested.”
After taking him into custody, authorities said they found an AR-15 rifle and multiple magazines and rounds of ammunition in a bag he brought aboard the train, along with several handguns.
“While removing that rifle from the suitcase, multiple handkerchiefs were observed wrapped around the trigger guard,” the news release states. “The officer placed the muzzle into the suitcase pointed at the ground and attempted to remove one of the handkerchiefs to render it safe, at which time the firearm discharged without the officer engaging the trigger, indicating that the gun was allegedly booby-trapped.”
In the release, the head of the New Jersey State Police said that “officers averted a tragedy.”
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said, “If not for the outstanding police work done in this matter, we can only imagine where this defendant and these weapons would have ended up.”
Authorities haven’t said whether they’ve determined what Kennerk intended to do with the guns and ammunition.