LOS ANGELES: A passenger was killed after a gunman hijacked a metropolis bus in Los Angeles early Wednesday, resulting in a sluggish police chase via downtown earlier than the suspect was finally arrested, authorities mentioned.
The armed man boarded the Metro bus with the motive force and two passengers aboard shortly earlier than 1 a.m. in South Los Angeles, in accordance with the Los Angeles Police Division.
Officers approached the bus because it slowly rolled away. A cavalcade of police autos adopted it as the motive force drove at gunpoint for the subsequent hour. A flashing signal on the entrance of the bus learn: “Emergency. 911 Name Police.”
Police deployed spike strips, which punctured one of many tires. After touring greater than 7 miles (11 kilometers), the bus finally got here to a cease at a downtown intersection close to the town’s Arts District, and the suspect surrendered, officers mentioned.
TV information footage confirmed a collection of small explosions across the bus stopped within the neighborhood of lofts and warehouses, then police storming aboard with shields. The bus driver climbed out of window and ran to security behind an armored automobile whereas officers moved in.
A person was discovered contained in the bus with gunshot wounds, however particulars about what led as much as the taking pictures weren’t instantly accessible. The sufferer was taken to a hospital, the place he was pronounced useless, officers mentioned.
The driving force and the second passenger have been handled by paramedics on the scene and launched. In a press release, Metro mentioned the bus driver was OK and receiving the assist he wants.
Police praised the motive force for holding calm.
“This operator continued to function the bus in as protected a fashion as he might beneath the circumstances, with the police trailing him for an hour earlier than the spike strips lastly took impact,” Deputy Chief Donald Graham informed reporters.
The killing is the most recent in a collection of violent incidents, together with stabbings and shootings on buses and trains as Los Angeles seeks to develop the transit system forward of internet hosting the Olympics in 2028. In Might, Mayor Karen Bass known as for elevated safety on transit routes – a message she reiterated on Wednesday.
“Each Angeleno has the precise to go about their lives safely – particularly on our public transportation techniques and I will likely be urgently working with the members of the Metro Board in addition to our Chair and Metro CEO to boost the security methods that we applied earlier this yr,” the mayor mentioned in a press release.
Janice Hahn, an LA County supervisor and chair of the Metro board, mentioned transit officers should determine the right way to stop folks from bringing weapons onto buses and trains.
In March, a person who indicated he had a gun hijacked a Metro bus in downtown LA after which grabbed the wheel, inflicting the bus to collide with a number of autos and crash right into a lodge.
