A gunman hijacked a Los Angeles Metro bus and led police on a wild chase that ended with one passenger dead and another injured in downtown Los Angeles early Wednesday, police said.
For more than an hour, a cavalry of police vehicles followed the bus as it slowly made its way from Vermont Knolls in South Los Angeles north to downtown, where it finally stopped after police used spike strips to slash the tires.
A SWAT team surrounded the vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. near Alameda and 6th Street. An officer shouted over a loudspeaker: “Metro Bus 5858, this is LAPD. You’re surrounded. Come out with your hands up, one by one.” Video shows the driver sitting motionless with his hands raised.
“This driver continued to operate the bus as safely as possible under the circumstances, with police following him for an hour before the spike strips finally took effect,” Deputy Chief Donald Graham of the LAPD’s Transportation Services Division said at a news conference.
Video of the end of the incident showed a series of small explosions from stun grenades deployed by police before officers burst inside with shields. One passenger escaped through a window and the bus driver climbed out of another window and ran to safety behind an armoured vehicle as officers intervened.
The chase began near South Figueroa Street and Manchester Avenue around 12:45 a.m. after the suspect boarded the bus, argued with the driver and shot a passenger as other passengers fled, LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes said.
A passenger who fled the bus amid the initial chaos ended up in traffic and was struck by a car and injured, police said. Four people remained on the bus — the suspect, the bus driver, a passenger who was later pronounced dead and another passenger — throughout the chase.
As 911 calls began pouring into dispatchers, the bus driver activated the panic button inside the vehicle, alerting police and triggering the emergency message on the illuminated screens outside the bus, police said.
Police located the bus and briefly stopped it at the corner of 117th and Figueroa Streets shortly after 1 a.m., but the chase continued, Cervantes said. At one point, officers threw nails into the bus’ path, tearing up its tires. At times, the bus drove the wrong way through the streets, wearing the shredded tires down to the rims.
Sirens wailed downtown as more than a half-dozen police vehicles followed the bus, drawing the attention of cyclists who rode alongside and took video. One video shows the bus driver waving to a television cameraman as the message “EMERGENCY 911 CALL POLICE” scrolled across the billboard.
The driver stared straight ahead as the camera focused on two other people inside the bus. A man with a backpack gave the camera the finger, and a passenger slumped against a window with the hood of a black sweatshirt pulled over his head in a nearby seat. Officers can be heard yelling at the cameraman to get away from the bus as the chase continues.
When the bus finally stopped and police rushed in, they found a passenger suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, who was later pronounced dead at the hospital. The driver and a second passenger were treated by paramedics at the scene and released, and the hijacker was arrested.
Neither the deceased passenger nor the suspect have been identified. Capt. Kelly Muniz said no shots were fired by police during the incident.
The LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a statement Wednesday that it was “grateful for the LAPD’s quick action regarding this morning’s bus hijacking incident and is grateful that the driver was unharmed.”
No information about the driver was immediately available. The bus he was driving typically serves Eagle Rock, Highland Park and downtown Los Angeles to South Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the incident a “nightmare” and praised the bus driver and law enforcement in a statement.
“We still have unanswered questions about the circumstances of this tragedy and I expect Metro to work closely with law enforcement and prosecutors to seek justice for the victim’s family,” she said. “We need to find ways to prevent people from bringing guns onto our buses and trains. The sooner we find solutions to prevent tragedies like this, the better.”
The hijacking is the latest incident in a string of stabbings and shootings on buses and trains that have marred Los Angeles’ transit system this year. In March, a man hijacked a Metro bus and threatened the driver with a gun that turned out to be fake. The incident resulted in the bus crashing into several parked cars and the Ritz-Carlton hotel downtown.
In April, Mirna Soza, 66 years old, was fatally stabbed on the subway while walking home from her night shift and a passenger filmed a bus driver beg for help after being stabbed.
In May, amid a series of violent clashes on Metro buses, Mayor Karen Bass called for increased security on transit lines.
