One Person Killed in Bus Hijacking in Los Angeles

A man with a gun hijacked a bus early Wednesday while several passengers were onboard, the police said. The man was taken into custody.

One passenger has died after a man with a gun hijacked a transit bus in Los Angeles early Wednesday, prompting a police chase through the city’s downtown, according to local authorities.

The suspect in the incident was taken into custody after an hourlong pursuit, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Two other passengers and the driver were on the bus during the hijacking, the police said. One passenger died after being taken to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

Officers were called to South Los Angeles just before 1 a.m., after a driver activated an emergency sign that flashed “911 call police” on the front of the bus, local news media reported. The bus had been stopped, but officers began pursuing it when it pulled away, believing that a person onboard was armed. They used spike strips to bring the bus to a stop in downtown Los Angeles.

A SWAT team used flash-bang devices before boarding the bus and taking the suspect into custody, police said.

The bus driver and the other passenger onboard were “shaken but uninjured,” the police said. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that it was “grateful” that the driver was unharmed and said it would provide him with support.

The driver, who was not identified, had steered the bus “in as safe a manner as he could” while the police trailed the vehicle for an hour, said Donald Graham, deputy chief for the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I think the world of the operator,” Mr. Graham said in a news conference, praising the driver’s composure and “bus operators in general for the jobs that they have to do.”

Footage from local broadcasters and people at the scene circulating online appeared to show police officers and police vehicles surrounding a stationary bus early Wednesday. A person in the front seat of the bus could be seen through a window holding up their hands, and officers rescuing the passengers appeared to pull the driver through the bus’s side window.

Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department’s homicide bureau were investigating and searching the bus for evidence, the department said. It was unclear on Wednesday what events had led up to the hijacking.

In March, a man was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of kidnapping after the police said he had hijacked a bus. The man, Anai Lindsey, threatened the driver, the only person onboard, and indicated that he had a gun. The bus eventually crashed into several vehicles and a hotel, injuring one person.