LOS ANGELES (AP) – A man who indicated he had a gun hijacked a transit bus in downtown Los Angeles, United States and then grabbed the wheel, causing the bus to collide with several vehicles and crash into a hotel, police said on Thursday.
Only the driver was on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority bus when the man boarded around 11.10pm on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement.
The man made threats, reached into his waistband as if he had a gun and stated, “Just drive!”, the statement said.
Police said the man grabbed the steering wheel as the bus driver was attempting a turn, leading to the collisions that injured an occupant of one vehicle. The final crash punched a hole in a wall of a Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The man fled, but officers later made an arrest and booked the suspect into jail for investigation of kidnapping. A BB gun that resembled a handgun was recovered near the bus, police said.
The bus operator was treated at a hospital and released. The injured motorist was in stable condition, police said. Neither was identified.
