1 Killed, 7 Hurt as Hijacked MTA Bus Plows Into Vehicles

A shooting suspect hijacked an MTA bus Wednesday, leading police on a wild 2-mile chase through rush-hour traffic downtown before the bus collided with a van and a delivery truck, killing the van’s driver and injuring seven others, Los Angeles police said.

The bus, with the driver with a gun to her head and five passengers aboard, then careened through the metal fence of a restaurant parking lot at San Pedro and Boyd streets, crashing into more than a dozen cars.

Officers fired several shots at the suspect after he jumped from the bus through the shattered windshield; he ran a short distance and tried to hijack a car, police said.

“We heard the crash and looked out the window and saw the bus crashing into cars, including mine,” said Lynnae Hitchcock, who works at 410 Boyd, a popular restaurant in the arts district.

“Seconds later I heard shots, four or five,” she said. “I saw the suspect run right past our door with officers chasing him east on Boyd. They caught him up the street.”

Neither the suspect, whose identity was not released, nor his intended carjacking victim was shot, police said.

Police arrested the suspect about a block away, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello.

The van’s driver, a woman possibly 35, was not identified, pending notification of relatives.

“She died immediately,” Pasquariello said. “Due to the impact on the vehicle--air bags, seat belts--I don’t think they would have helped much. It was so violent.”

The incident began with a shooting about 4:15 p.m. inside an apartment building near 8th and Witmer streets half a mile from MacArthur Park, police said.

After being shot, the wounded man ran out of the building, chased by his assailant who continued to fire as the two ran down the street, police said.

The shooting victim rounded a corner and continued for about 200 feet before collapsing just outside the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the officers union, on 8th and Witmer streets, police said.

Officers at league headquarters saw the victim collapse outside, and a detective called police, investigators said. Arriving officers saw the suspect run away holding a semiautomatic handgun and jump on the bus at 8th and Blaine streets, police said.

Placing his gun to the head of bus driver Ema Gutierrez, 48, the suspect ordered her to drive south on Blaine to Olympic Boulevard, police said, then east on Olympic to San Pedro.

Gutierrez then turned north on San Pedro and continued six blocks to 4th Street, where she broadsided the van traveling east on 4th, and then a United Parcel Service delivery truck, police said.

The force of the impact pushed the van and the delivery truck nearly a block north to Boyd before the bus crashed through the parking lot fence.

Gutierrez had a broken nose, broken collarbone, cuts to her face and neck, and perhaps a broken knee, said MTA spokesman Jose Ubaldo.

The shooting victim, 34, was in critical condition as he underwent surgery Wednesday with gunshots to his abdomen and chest, the spokeswoman said.

A California Hospital Medical Center official said the UPS driver, 33, complained of a headache and had bruises. He was later released.

A 50-year-old woman, believed to have been a passenger on the bus, was treated for a swollen nose and lips, said Sylvia Robledo, the hospital spokeswoman. She was later released.

Those injured on the bus also included a 27-year-old woman and her 3-year-old daughter. They were treated at White Memorial Hospital and released.

Neighbors of the four-story apartment building where the shooting took place said the building is mostly vacant but is home to a handful of homeless squatters.

“It is a bad building,” said one area resident who would only give her first name, Maria.

She said the squatters are known to use drugs and that they have started fires in the building twice in the last month.

The shooting suspect faces charges of attempted murder, vehicular manslaughter, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, carjacking and felony evading police, and charges for pointing a gun at police, Pasquariello said.

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Times staff writers Kurt Streeter, Wendy Thermos and Dalondo Moultrie contributed to this story.

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Downtown Hijacking

1. Suspect shoots a man at 8th and Witmer streets at 4:15 p.m.

2. The victim tries to run and collapses behind a Los Angeles Police Protective League office. Suspect, pursued by LAPD officers, forces MTA bus driver at gunpoint to drive off.

3. Bus, with bus driver, suspect and five passengers, travels through downtown until it crashes into a minivan and UPS truck.

4. Bus careens into a parking lot fence, crushing several cars, and stops.

5. Suspect jumps out of bus and runs a short distance before being captured by police at 4:25 p.m.

Source: Los Angeles Police Department