Man Hijacks Texas Bus, Leads Police on Pursuit

April 21, 2013

The 30-mile chase stretched from Austin to Bastrop before the man pulled over and killed himself.

An armed man hijacked a Capital Metro transit bus Saturday afternoon and led police on a 30-mile chase from Austin to Bastrop before pulling the bus over and killing himself, police said.

Witnesses said they heard tires blow and saw black smoke trailing the bus before it stopped on the Texas 71 access road near Hasler Boulevard.

The man had boarded at a bus stop on Thaxton Road near Running Water Drive in Southeast Austin about 4:20 p.m., said Austin police officer Jermaine Kilgore. He forced the driver and the two passengers off the bus at gunpoint before getting behind the wheel and heading east, officials said.

Police and other area law enforcement located the bus at some point and began to pursue it. They headed east on Texas 71 as police several times tried to get the driver to pull over. When he refused, Kilgore said, they put down road spikes that deflated the tires on the driver's side of the bus.

A witness, Leonard Six, said the bus made a left under Texas 71 onto the access road from Hasler Boulevard trailing black smoke and with more than a dozen law enforcement vehicles in pursuit. The chase was moving slowly at that point, he said.

The man pulled the bus over in an AutoZone parking lot, police said. As officers surrounded the bus, they heard a shot, they said. The man was dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, officers said.

Police would not release the man's name.

Capital Metro spokesman Dan Dawson said bus drivers are trained to deal with difficult situations. There are cameras on the buses and drivers can reach emergency dispatchers when help is needed, he said.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service