The “driver is out of the bus with the help of SWAT, uninjured,\u201d an LAPD spokesperson said, adding that a suspect was in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One person was shot dead as a gunman hijacked <\/strong>a bus with passengers on board in downtown Los Angeles early Wednesday, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The suspect was taken into custody by police and identified in booking records as Lamont Campbell, 51,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police have not said what happened leading up to the alleged hijacking or the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No details were provided about the identity of the victim, who was shot inside the bus and died at a local hospital, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The “driver is out of the bus with the help of SWAT, uninjured,” a police spokesperson said in an earlier statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LA Metro said in a statement that it was “grateful for the LAPD\u2019s swift action regarding this morning\u2019s bus hijacking incident and is grateful the operator was unharmed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Metro is providing the operator with the support he needs,” the statement added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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: \u201cThis is LAPD, you\u2019re surrounded, come out with your hands up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The driver and the suspect were both evaluated by the Los Angeles Fire Department and required no medical treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n