- A rifle-toting U.S. Army trainee hijacked a busload of children in South Carolina on Thursday before letting the kids off and abandoning the vehicle.
- The 18 children “started asking lots of questions to the suspect, if he was going to hurt them or the bus driver,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
- That questioning “frustrated” the intruder before he let the children and driver off of the shortly before surrendering.
David K. Li from NBC News writes:
“A rifle-toting U.S. Army trainee hijacked a busload of children in South Carolina on Thursday before letting the kids off, abandoning the vehicle and surrendering, officials said.
The trainee from Fort Jackson left the base with a rifle — later found to be without ammunition — at about 7 a.m. ET and tried flagging motorists on Interstate 77 before spotting a school bus stop, authorities said.
He “told the bus driver that he didn’t want to hurt him, but he wanted him to drive him to the next town,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
Lott identified the suspect as 23-year-old New Jersey native Jovan Collazo.
The sheriff released brief video clips taken from inside the bus during the hijacking, showing a man holding a rifle and dressed in a dark T-shirt with “ARMY” spelled out in capital letters.
He could be heard ordering the driver, “Close the door, drive, drive!”
The suspect brought all 18 children to the front of the bus, where they “started asking lots of questions to the suspect, if he was going to hurt them or the bus driver,” Lott said.
That questioning “frustrated” the intruder before he let the children and driver off, drove himself a short distance, abandoned the bus, left the rifle on board and was captured without incident, according to the sheriff.
The total time the man was on the bus with the kids and driver was six minutes, Lott said.
“It was six minutes of a bad guy on a bus with a gun who was very desperate,” the sheriff said…”
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