A passenger is dead and a suspect is in custody after Los Angeles Police surrounded a hijacked bus in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Various reports online had claimed the bus had been hijacked, and that it had hostages on board, including the bus driver.
The LAPD confirmed that it deployed a SWAT team to the bus, arrested a suspect, and that one of the passengers died on their way to the hospital having suffered from multiple gunshot wounds.
In a statement provided to Newsweek, the LAPD confirmed that it began receiving calls radio calls about the incident at 12:45 am, relating to a bus in the area of Manchester and Figueroa.
Officers located the bus stopped at 117th and Figueroa and attempted to communicate with the driver but the bus pulled away and a pursuit ensued.
AB7 helicopter reporter Chris Christi wrote on X the bus had been traveling in the wrong direction.
The LAPD said its officers believed the suspect was armed and still on the bus with hostages, and so requested a SWAT team to respond to the pursuit.
The pursuit lasted about one hour and ended when police laid spike strips which stopped the bus on Alameda, south of 6th Street.
A map show s the location of where police stopped a hijacked bus in Los Angeles. A passenger is dead and a suspect is in custoday after LAPD surrounded the bus in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Newsweek
The statement said that SWAT deployed noise flash diversionary devices and boarded the bus.
The suspect involved in the incident was taken into custody. The bus operator and two passengers were still onboard.
The New York Times reported that the Los Angeles Metro said it was “grateful” the driver was unharmed and would provide him with support.
Online images and a live stream from local news reporters show an MTA bus stopped at the side of the road, with an armored police vehicle in front of it, and an armed SWAT team at the scene.
At 02:47 a.m. PT, X user @Raw_Reporting wrote that the SWAT team deployed flash bangs through the driver’s side window and that the driver had escaped.
Another user, @_PalenstineFree, posted a picture of a SWAT truck beside the bus.
At 02:56 a.m., user @TraceOperations reported that fire and rescue were on board the bus.
Local broadcaster KTLA5 captured footage of the chase showing the bus being pursued by six police vehicles with their sirens on.
Deputy Police Chief Donald Graham told reporters an emergency panic button in the bus had alerted police.
The bus driver continued to operate the bus “in as safe a manner as he could under the circumstances, with police trailing him for over an hour,” Graham said, calling the city’s bus operators “civil service heroes.”
Update 09/25/24 12:15 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
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