Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Man Killed by Train Reported Depressed

The family of the 27-year-old man struck and killed by a train in Tustin shortly after being released from County Jail Sunday said he was depressed and had made statements that he might want to end his life, according to the coroner’s office.

Investigators Tuesday identified the man as Patrick Jay Flynn and tentatively classified his death as suicide. They described him as an unmarried, unemployed man with “no fixed abode” who had a mother and brother living in Tustin.

Coroner’s investigator Richard McAnally said it appears that the only witnesses to Flynn’s death were people aboard the San Diego-bound Amtrak train. The engineer said Flynn was walking along the track with his back toward the train and did not react to the repeated blasts of the locomotive’s horn, McAnally said.

According to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson, Flynn was booked into jail Saturday at 10 a.m. for a string of misdemeanor warrants: violation of probation, driving without a license, trespassing, giving false identification to a police officer and failure to appear in court for a speeding violation.

Olson said Flynn was released from jail without bail at 9:59 a.m. Sunday. Flynn was struck and killed by the train at 12:01 p.m., about a half-mile east of Red Hill Avenue.