A passenger was fatally shot early Wednesday when a gunman hijacked a city bus and threatened its driver to drive through downtown Los Angeles for an hour before surrendering.
Police said the armed suspect boarded a Metro bus with the driver and two passengers just before 1 a.m.
Officers were alerted to a kidnapping situation and followed the bus as it rolled away with the driver operating at gunpoint for an hour.
The bus came to a stop at a downtown intersection after police deployed spike strips. The suspect surrendered to officers.
One of the two bus passengers was found with multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Authorities said the other passenger and the bus driver were OK, praising the latter for keeping his calm throughout the ordeal.
“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,” Deputy Chief Donald Graham said.
