WASCO, Calif. (TCD) — Deputies arrested a 28-year-old man after he was seen walking around and waving the severed leg of a man who was struck and killed by a train nearby.
According to an arrest report, on March 22 at 8:08 a.m., Kern County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to the Amtrak Station in Wasco about a person who had been hit by a northbound train. As one of the responding deputies was arriving, Amtrak employees reportedly pointed to a man, who was identified as Rosendo Tellez, walking down the street with an object under his sweater.
The deputy approached Tellez because he was not sure whether Tellez was the injured victim in the collision. As the deputy got near Tellez, he reportedly “pulled the object out from his sweater and dropped it on the floor.”
The “object” turned out to be a left leg severed at the knee.
Tellez was reportedly placed in the deputy’s patrol car and was cooperative.
Investigators reportedly obtained a video of Tellez “cradling the foot and laughing at the person recording him.”
The report says Tellez claimed the foot was his “even though he had both feet.” He saw the victim’s foot on the ground and “thought it was his foot.”
Tellez picked the limb up and allegedly wanted to take it to the hospital, but he “got scared and ran when people in the area started yelling at him.”
According to the report, Tellez told the deputy he knew a man was killed by the train crash but did not know the victim’s name.
Another deputy who responded to the scene spoke with a construction worker nearby who had three videos of Tellez with the leg. The worker said Tellez hit the leg against a piece of construction equipment, which appeared to have blood on it.
In one video, Tellez is reportedly “bent over at the waist while holding the leg near his face.” After standing up, Tellez reportedly “brings the leg up to his face and briefly touches the leg against his mouth.”
Another video reportedly shows Tellez “waving the leg with his right hand and lifting it in the air as to present it.” The construction worker’s third video was of Tellez speaking with deputies, then running away.
A third deputy wrote about the man killed by the train. The deputy went to the tracks and noticed a “trail of various body parts” on the tracks until he found the “bulk of the body.” The deputy said the victim was “obviously deceased with no hope of resuscitation.”
The conductor reportedly said he was in the front of the train with the engineer and engineer in training when he saw someone slowly walking with their bike near the tracks. The victim allegedly looked as if he was speaking to someone else behind him. The conductor “sounded the train horn many times” to get the victim’s attention, but he “never looked at or acknowledged the train.”
The victim reportedly “walked onto the train tracks right in front of the train.”
Tellez was booked into the Kern County Jail on charges of removal of human remains from other than a cemetery, deposit/disposal of human remains outside of a cemetery, destroy/conceal evidence, and obstruct/resist peace officer/emergency medical team. His bail was set at $6,500.
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