By Joseph Serna and Richard Winton
Source Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — A gunman hijacked a Metro bus and led Los Angeles police on a wild chase that ended with one passenger dead in downtown L.A. early Wednesday, according to police.
For more than an hour, a cavalry of officers in police SUVs followed the bus as it slowly made its way from Vermont Knolls in South Los Angeles north into downtown, where it ultimately came to a stop after police used spike strips on the tires and surrounded it with a SWAT team after 2 a.m.
“This operator continued to operate the bus in as safe a manner as he could under the circumstances, with the police trailing him for an hour before the spike strips finally took effect,” said Deputy Chief Donald Graham with the LAPD’s Transit Services Division during a news conference.
Video from the incident showed a series of small explosions around the bus stopped near Alameda and 6th streets then police storming inside with shields. A passenger escaped through a window as police stormed the bus while video showed the bus driver climbing out of a window and running to safety behind an armored vehicle while officers move in.
The chase began near South Figueroa Street and Manchester Avenue about 12:45 after police received 911 calls related to the bus, LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes said. Police said the suspect got on the bus, argued with the driver and shot a passenger as others on the bus ran out.
As calls to 911 began to flood into dispatchers, the bus driver hit the panic button inside the vehicle, alerting police and triggering the emergency message on the light display, police said.
Police located the bus and briefly stopped it at 117th and Figueroa just after 1 a.m. but then the pursuit continued, Cervantes said. At some point, officers threw down spike strips in the bus’ path, ripping through its tires. At times, the bus sped down streets in the wrong direction as it wore down the thrashed tires to the rims.
Video from the pursuit as the bus made its way through downtown showed the bus being chased by more than a half dozen police vehicles while onlookers rode alongside it on bicycles taking video. One video showed the bus driver wave over a news cameraperson as “EMERGENCY 911 CALL POLICE” scrolls across its message board. The video shows the bus driver staring forward and two other people inside, one man with a backpack who flips a middle finger at the camera person and another passenger slumped over against a window in a seat nearby. Officers then shout at the cameraman to get away from the bus before the pursuit continued.
When the pursuit ended and police stormed in, they found one passenger suffering from multiple gunshot wounds but no one else injured, Cervantes said. The driver and a second passenger were treated by paramedics at the scene and released and the hijacker was arrested. The victim suffering gunshot wounds was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
The hijacking is the latest in a series of violent incidents that have marred Los Angeles’ transit system. In May, Mayor Karen Bass called for beefed-up security on transit lines.
Earlier this year, several stabbing and shootings on buses and trains generated outrage and demands for changes.
In April, Mirna Soza, 66, was fatally stabbed on the subway as she came home from her night shift job and a passenger captured a bus driver on video pleading for help after being stabbed.
___
©2024 Los Angeles Times.
Visit at latimes.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
