Man pleads not guilty to school bus assault, attempted kidnapping

A man accused of trying to hijack an elementary school bus, kidnap his own children and slash the driver with a butcher knife while terrified children escaped out the back door pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Matthew D. Barker, 37, a Campo, Calif., resident whose two children and niece were on the bus, is charged with felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, attempted kidnapping, attempted carjacking and elder abuse on the 78-year-old bus driver.

A man and woman who jumped on the bus were able to wrest away the knife and help hold the attacker until sheriff’s deputies got there.

“There were a number of good Samaritans in this case,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Taren Brast said.

No one was injured in the struggle.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos in El Cajon set Barker’s bail at $750,000 at the request of the prosecutor, who called Barker a danger to society and a flight risk. The judge also imposed a protective order to keep Barker from contact with his children, ages 8 and 9, and his 14-year-old niece.

Brast said Barker has legal custody of his children, who now are being cared for by their grandparents. Authorities believe Barker may have been under the influence of drugs, possibly methamphetamine, when he forced his way onto the Mountain Empire Unified School District bus.

Twenty-one children were on the bus last Friday when the driver started to pull away from a stop shortly before 8:30 a.m., Brast said.

She said Barker ran up to the moving bus and pounded on the glass door. The driver stopped and Barker started to get on. When the driver told him to stay off the bus, Barker pulled out a butcher knife “and told the driver to drive,” Brast said.

Instead, the driver tried to block Barker, who got past him, calling to his children to come to him, Brast said.

“Children were screaming and crying,” the prosecutor said in court.

She told the judge that Barker’s niece tried to grab the knife and was nearly cut. Then, Brast said, Barker punched the driver in the face, knocking him onto a seat.

Barker got on top of him and slashed with the knife, cutting the seat upholstery.

“The driver screamed for help and thought his arm was being broken,” Brast said.

A woman recognized Barker and got onto the bus to try to stop him. A motorist who was flagged down joined the woman — a grandmother to one student, according to a sheriff’s official — in getting the knife away and subduing Barker.

Brast said Barker’s brother also showed up and helped hold him for deputies.

Meanwhile, older children ushered the younger ones toward the back of the bus. Sixth-grader Jesus Jimenez, 12, said he and his cousin got the back emergency door open and helped students exit.

“I told them to run home, don’t stop,” Jesus said.

Brast said a second knife believed to be Barker’s later was found under the driver’s seat.

Barker is on probation, with past misdemeanor convictions for resisting arrest, making a criminal threat, drunken driving and driving on a suspended license, the prosecutor said. He faces close to 13 years in prison if convicted of all the felony charges.

He is scheduled to return to court on July 13 for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to send him to trial.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Repard writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune