One person was shot dead when a gunman hijacked a bus carrying passengers in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, police said.
The bus driver and another passenger were rescued after an hour-long, low-speed police chase and the arrival of a SWAT team, police said. Deputy Police Chief Donald Graham told reporters that officers used spike strips to stop the bus. Several people got out, he said.
The suspect was arrested by police and identified in police records as Lamont Campbell, 51,
Police have not released details of what happened leading up to the alleged hijacking or shooting.
No details were released about the identity of the victim, who was shot on the bus and died at a local hospital, police said.
Graham said the driver used “emergency protocols” to raise the alarm. The driver is “in relatively good spirits, if a little shaken up,” he added. He praised the role of bus drivers in the city, calling them “civic service heroes.”
“This driver continued to operate the bus as safely as he could under the circumstances, while the police followed him for an hour before the spike strips finally took effect,” he said. “So I think the driver, and this person and bus drivers in general, deserve the world of work that they have to do.”
“The driver emerged from the bus unharmed with the assistance of a SWAT team,” a police spokesperson said in an earlier statement.
LA Metro said in a statement that it is “grateful for the LAPD’s swift action in responding to this morning’s bus hijacking and thankful that the driver was unharmed.”
“Metro is providing the carrier with the support it needs,” the statement said.
Bystanders who were apparently at the scene as the police operation was underway posted videos to TikTok and YouTube. In one video, which shows a parked orange van, police can be heard saying, “This is LAPD, you’re surrounded, come out with your hands up.”
The driver and the suspect were both examined by the Los Angeles Fire Department and did not require medical treatment.
Police confirmed shortly before 6 a.m. ET that a bus was stopped at the corner of Alameda and 6th Street in downtown Los Angeles and that a SWAT team was en route to the scene of the crash.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
