Police are continuing to investigate what happened during a wild chase Wednesday morning where a man with a gun hijacked a Los Angeles Metro bus, shot a passenger and led police on a pursuit that ended with a dramatic predawn standoff with SWAT officers downtown.
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 into downtown, where it ultimately stopped after police used spike strips to puncture the tires.
City leaders on Wednesday acknowledged the hijacking is an example of the challenges they face in keeping passengers safe amid heightened concerns about crime on Los Angeles’ public transit systems. Just four months ago, Mayor Karen Bass called for beefed-up security on transit lines following a rash of violent clashes.
“Every Angeleno has the right to go about their lives safely — especially on our public transportation systems,” Bass said in a statement Wednesday, adding that she plans to collaborate with Metro to bolster safety strategies implemented this year. “What happened this morning was completely unacceptable and has no place in Los Angeles.”
The perilous ride through downtown came to an end near Alameda and 6th streets after a tense standoff between SWAT teams that had surrounded the bus and the suspect inside. An officer yelled over a speaker: “Metro Bus 5858 this is LAPD. You’re surrounded. Come out with your hands up, one by one.” Video showed the driver sitting motionless with his hands raised.
Video of the scene then showed a series of small explosions from flash bangs deployed by police before officers with shields stormed inside. One passenger escaped through a window and the bus driver climbed out of another and ran to safety behind an armored vehicle while officers moved in.
“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,” Deputy Chief Donald Graham with the LAPD’s Transit Services Division said during a news conference.
The chase began near South Figueroa Street and Manchester Avenue about 12:45 a.m. after the suspect boarded the bus, argued with the driver and shot a passenger as the other riders ran out, LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes said.
A passenger who fled the bus amid the initial chaos ran into traffic and was hit by a car and injured, police said. Four remained on the bus — the suspect, bus operator, a rider who was later pronounced dead and another passenger — for the duration of the chase.
As calls to 911 began to flood in to dispatchers, the bus driver activated the panic button inside the vehicle, alerting police and triggering the emergency message on the light displays on the outside of the bus, 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 the shredded tires down to the rims.
Sirens screamed through downtown as more than half a dozen police vehicles trailed the bus, attracting the attention of bicyclists who rode alongside taking video. One video showed the bus driver wave over a news camera person as “EMERGENCY 911 CALL POLICE” scrolled across its message board.
The driver stared forward as the camera panned to two other people inside. A man with a backpack flipped a middle finger at the camera and a passenger slumped over against a window with the hood of a black sweatshirt pulled over his head in a seat nearby. Officers are heard shouting at the cameraman to get away from the bus as the pursuit continues.
When police were finally able to board the bus, they found one passenger suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, who was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The driver and a second passenger were treated by paramedics at the scene and released, and the hijacker was arrested.
Neither the dead passenger nor the suspect was identified. Capt. Kelly Muniz said no shots were fired by police in the incident.
The L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a statement Wednesday that it is “grateful for the LAPD’s swift action regarding this morning’s bus hijacking incident and is grateful the operator was unharmed.”
Information about the driver was not immediately available. The bus he was operating typically services Eagle Rock, Highland Park and downtown Los Angeles to South L.A.
L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn called the incident a “nightmare” and lauded the bus driver and law enforcement in a statement.
“We still have unanswered questions about how this happened and I expect Metro to work closely with both law enforcement and prosecutors as they seek justice for the victim’s family,” she said. “We need ways to prevent people from bringing weapons onto our Metro buses and trains, and the sooner we can find solutions to prevent tragedies like this, the better.”
More than a dozen violent altercations on buses, trains and Metro properties 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 bus crashed into several parked cars and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in downtown.
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.
All of it has put some riders on edge.
Sarah Smith, 39, held her 9-month-old son while balancing a stroller as she stepped onto a bus in South L.A. later Wednesday morning.
“I feel relatively safe,” she said, though she added that there’s sometimes “weird energies” on the bus. One day, she said, a man had followed her around on the bus and was shouting, “I’m going to sock you!”
Smith’s been riding the bus almost daily for the past two months while she saves up for a car. Absent other transportation she doesn’t have much choice but to use public transit, she said.
“I just do what I have to do,” she said.
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