Amtrak Wins Reversal of $44 Million Award in Random Attack Case

Amtrak got a major victory Wednesday when the Eighth Circuit reversed a $44 million jury award it had been ordered to pay to the estate of a man shot to death on a train in a “random execution.”

The jury didn’t have sufficient basis to find the National Railroad Passenger Corp., doing business as Amtrak, liable on any theory of negligence presented to the court, said Judge L. Steven Grasz of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in a published opinion.

A three-judge panel reversed a district court’s denial of Amtrak’s motion for a judgment as a matter of law, and directed the district court to enter judgment for Amtrak.

The shooting occurred in January 2022 after Richie Aaron Jr. and Marquise Webb separately boarded an Amtrak train in Normal, Ill. They didn’t know each other.

After the men changed trains in St. Louis to another called the River Runner, Webb shot Aaron in the back five times. “There was no apparent motive for the random execution,” the court said.

Though a passenger informed an Amtrak crew member about possible gun shots, the crew member “apparently dismissed the noise as fireworks,” the opinion said.

Aaron’s widow on behalf of herself, Aaron, and their three children, sued Amtrak, alleging negligence and vicarious liability, and wrongful death under Missouri law.

After a 2024 trial, a jury found Amtrak liable. It awarded the Aarons $8.8 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages, which was later reduced $35.2 million.

The panel agreed with Amtrak’s argument that the district court erred in denying it judgment as a matter of law because the evidence didn’t establish that the unprovoked shooting was foreseeable. Under Missouri law, Amtrak didn’t have a duty to protect Aaron “from the unforeseeable criminal acts of unknown third parties,” the court said.

The Aarons failed to present evidence that Amtrak experienced prior violent crime on the “relevant premises” of the River Runner, the court said.

The Eighth Circuit disagreed with the district court’s conclusion that Amtrak’s existing security measures indicated violent crime on the River Runner was foreseeable. “Amtrak’s acknowledgement that crime was possible does not prove that this particular crime was sufficiently foreseeable to impose a legal duty,” the panel said.

The appeals court also agreed with Amtrak’s assertion that Aaron would have died from his gunshot wounds “regardless of its employees’ subsequent action,” rejecting the family’s “but-for causation” theory.

Evidence presented by the family, including testimony from an emergency room doctor, didn’t support “a reasonable inference” that Amtrak’s negligence “directly caused” or “directly contributed to cause” Aaron’s death, the court said.

Judges Duane Benton and Jonathan A. Kobes joined the opinion.

Witherspoon Law Group, Tueth Keeney Cooper Mohan Jackstadt PC, Aubrey Nick Pittman of Dallas, and Jonathan Sternberg of Kansas City represent the Aaron family. Landman Corsi Ballaine & Ford PC and Scharnhorst Ast Kennard Griffin PC represent Amtrak.

The case is Aaron v. Nat’l Railroad Passenger Corp., 8th Cir., No. 24-02654, 12/31/25.