The “driver is out of the bus with the help of SWAT, uninjured,” an LAPD spokesperson said, adding that a suspect was in custody.
One person was shot dead as a gunman hijacked a bus with passengers on board in downtown Los Angeles early Wednesday, police said.
The bus driver and another passenger were rescued after an hourlong slow police chase and the arrival of a SWAT team, police said. Deputy Police Chief Donald Graham told reporters that officers used spike strips to bring the bus to a halt. Several people exited, he said.
The suspect was taken into custody by police and identified in booking records as Lamont Campbell, 51,
Police have not said what happened leading up to the alleged hijacking or the shooting.
No details were provided about the identity of the victim, who was shot inside the bus and died at a local hospital, police said.
Graham said the driver used “emergency protocols” to sound the alarm. The driver is “in relatively good spirits, although a bit shaken up,” he added. He praised the role of bus drivers in the city, calling them “civil service heroes.”
“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,” he said. “So I think the world of the operator, and this individual and bus operators in general, for the job that they have to do.”
The “driver is out of the bus with the help of SWAT, uninjured,” a police spokesperson said in an earlier statement.
LA Metro said in a statement that it was “grateful for the LAPD’s swift action regarding this morning’s bus hijacking incident and is grateful the operator was unharmed.”
“Metro is providing the operator with the support he needs,” the statement added.
Onlookers apparently at the scene while the police operation was in progress posted video to TikTok and YouTube. In one video showing a parked orange bus, police are heard saying: “This is LAPD, you’re surrounded, come out with your hands up.”
The driver and the suspect were both evaluated by the Los Angeles Fire Department and required no medical treatment.
Police confirmed shortly before 6 a.m. ET that a bus had come to a standstill at Alameda and 6th streets in downtown Los Angeles and that a SWAT team was on its way to the scene.
