A distraught man carjacked a Metro bus Tuesday morning in Northeast, attacked the driver and drove the bus to a gas station, where it struck and killed a pedestrian in the parking lot, D.C. police said.
“It’s a bizarre incident, [it’s] very uncharacteristic for someone to try and take a bus and attack a bus driver,” Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said at a media briefing near the gas station. “The entire duration of the event was less than three minutes.”
The incident began in the 3800 block of Jay Street NE, where the man boarded the Metro bus, Chief Lanier said. As the bus rolled to a stop in the 800 block of Kenilworth Avenue, the man attacked the driver, and the other passengers immediately fled.
Brandishing a weapon, the man stood beside the driver as he steered the vehicle. The driver managed to escape and pressed an emergency button to alert authorities before leaving the bus, the chief said.
The unidentified man then took control of the Metro bus, closed its doors and drove to Minnesota and Nannie Helen Burroughs avenues, where the bus jumped two curbs at a Crown gas station on the corner and struck a pedestrian in the parking lot, Chief Lanier said. The pedestrian, who was not identified, died of his injuries.
The bus crashed into a retaining wall at the gas station, about five blocks from where it had been carjacked.
Police arrived at the scene quickly, having been alerted by the emergency button, and captured the suspect, who was still on the bus, she said.
“We have that suspect in custody,” she said adding that there was no second suspect.
“The suspect appeared to be very strong and violent,” Chief Lanier told reporters, adding that she believed the man was taken to a hospital. She had no information about his condition.
The police chief emphasized that only one suspect was involved in the incident, correcting earlier media reports that a group of juveniles was responsible for the carjacking.
“I don’t want to get into what type of weapon [was used], but we do have a weapon,” she said.
NBC4 News reported that the suspect had held a pair of needle-nose pliers to the driver’s neck during the attack, adding that the driver suffered minor back injuries in his escape.
Metro officials tweeted that the bus driver was hurt but his injuries were not life-threatening. They said the passengers on the bus were not injured.
Chief Lanier expressed confidence in eventually discerning the details of the incident.
“As you know, everything on the bus is captured by video, so we have video of the entire incident,” she said.
Bus drivers have been attacked before, and a bus being stolen is not unprecedented, but a hijacking such as this is “highly unusual,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said.
The details of the attack are still being pieced together, but the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents most Metro employees, including drivers, has been calling for a greater police presence on buses and on the rails, said union spokesman David Stephen.
⦁ This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Carleton Bryant can be reached at cbryant@washingtontimes.com.
• Ryan M. McDermott can be reached at rmcdermott@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.