Video: LAPD arrests man who hijacked bus and killed passenger after dramatic chase
Several police cars followed the vehicle for an hour until a SWAT team managed to intervene and arrest the suspect.
Sequence of images of the chase and arrest of a bus hijacker in L.A.
Los Angeles residents witnessed a dramatic police chase straight out of a Hollywood script. A gunman hijacked a bus and fatally shot a passenger. Despite multiple police patrols attempting to stop him, the bus continued moving for over an hour until a SWAT team successfully halted it by puncturing the tires and apprehended the suspect.
According to the Police report, it all started around 12:45 a.m., (local time), when a gunman got on a bus at South Figueroa Street and Manchester Avenue and, after arguing with the driver, shot one passenger while the rest tried to run away. Two of them (one was the man hit by the bullets, who eventually died) did not make it and had to remain inside the vehicle while the suspect forced the driver to drive at gunpoint, despite the presence of a large group of police cars ordering him to stop.
For over an hour, a large number of police vehicles pursued the bus, whose driver—under threat from the armed assailant—followed the suspect’s instructions and drove slowly from Vermont Knolls, in South Los Angeles, to downtown. Once there, officers used spike strips to puncture the tires and stop the vehicle. A SWAT team deployed flashbang grenades and stormed the bus to apprehend the suspect.
The suspect is Lamont Campbell, 51, who is charged with murder. He is being held in custody on $2 million bail.
City officials, led by Mayor Karen Bass, congratulated the officers on the resolution of the incident, and pledged to make public transportation safer:
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