Revenge Called Motive for Attack on Bus With Liquid

A 15-year-old Van Nuys youth accused of spraying a caustic liquid into a school bus Wednesday in Van Nuys was apparently trying to get back at some friends who had offended him, authorities said.

Marty Estrin, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the youth was arrested at his parent’s home Wednesday night after he allegedly sprayed an ammonia-based liquid through the windows of the bus on Van Nuys Boulevard. The youth was a student at a Van Nuys continuation school and a friend of some of the students on the bus, Estrin said.

“He said the reason he did it is, somebody had bothered him, so he thought he’d spray them,” Estrin said. “It wasn’t so much an act of violence as it was a case of a junior high kid deciding to throw a tantrum.”

Jeffrey Burgess, a spokesman for the district’s police department, said the youth was being held at Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, where he was booked on suspicion of assault with a caustic substance.

Officials said 45 students from Van Nuys Junior High School were traveling to an elementary school in East Los Angeles when the youth threw or sprayed a yellowish chemical through the windows of the bus. Fourteen students were briefly treated at area hospitals after complaining of irritations to their eyes and faces, but none was admitted.

Burgess said the ammonia-based chemical had been found to be caustic but not toxic in tests conducted by the Los Angeles City Fire Department. He said the chemical was believed to be similar to sprays used by mailmen to ward off unfriendly animals.