Pasadena police stop leads to weapons cache discovery

LOS ANGELES -- A man who was spotted urinating at a Los Angeles County commuter train station on Wednesday had a weapons cache that included silencers, a rifle, handgun and perhaps 150 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

Christopher Harrison Goodine, 28, of Union City, Georgia, was arrested for possessing a silencer, an assault weapon and a high-capacity magazine. He was being held on $50,500 bail and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.

There was no immediate indication that the man was involved with terrorism but investigators were still trying to determine why he had the guns and the deputies who spotted Goodine "may have saved a lot of lives," Sheriff Jim McDonnell said at a news conference.

"We have somebody who was walking around with this type of weaponry, this much ammunition - the outcome would not have been good no matter what he was going to do," McDonnell said, according to CBS Los Angeles. "There but for the grace of God, we could have had a tragedy here today in Los Angeles."

Patrolling deputies saw the man urinating into a planter at the Metro Gold Line's Sierra Madre station in Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles.

"My first reaction was, really just exasperation: 'Can't you just hold it or can't you just find somewhere to go?'" Deputy Katherine Zubo said. "He said, 'No, I really gotta go.'"

Inside a duffel bag, authorities found an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with a collapsible stock that was loaded with a single bullet; a .40-caliber handgun with markings indicating its use was restricted to law enforcement or government use; several loaded high-capacity magazines and two small bags of bullets.

There also were what appeared to be silencers machined from pipe, a machete-like knife, rope, a Bible and a notebook containing writings that investigators were still trying to decipher, authorities said.

Goodine was "coherent and compliant" when he was arrested although at first he gave a false name, Zubo said.

It was unclear where Goodine had been, where he was going or what he planned to do.

Goodine may have boarded the train in Los Angeles' Chinatown and gotten off at the Pasadena station but investigators were still trying to determine that, Zubo said.

Investigators also hadn't determined where Goodine got the guns and ammo, although the bags indicated they were from a supplier or suppliers in Georgia. One package indicated the bullets were hollow points, a type of expanding bullet that is illegal.

Goodine was wearing a blue button-down shirt and black pants when he was arrested. Except for urinating in public, he didn't say or do anything that would have drawn attention, Zubo said.

He was "not atypical. Maybe a little disheveled," she said.