Racial Shooting Tied to Fatal Bus Hijacking

A racially motivated shooting may have preceded the hijacking of an MTA bus and a wild chase through downtown Los Angeles that ended after the bus crashed into a van, killing a mother of three, police said Thursday.

“It appears the crime . . . prior to the commandeering of the bus and the hostage-taking, was hatred-motivated,” Det. Dennis English of the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Police said the suspect in the bus hijacking, 33-year-old Carlos Garcia, apparently shot Anthony Lewis, 34, who is black, Wednesday afternoon because he did not approve of black men associating with Latino women.

English said police got the information from Lewis, who was shot twice and was in critical but stable condition at a hospital Thursday.

The shooting prompted a wild bus pursuit after officers, alerted to the fact that a man had just collapsed on a sidewalk with gunshot wounds, spotted Garcia boarding an MTA bus driven by Ema Gutierrez at 8th and Blaine streets.

Police said Thursday that Gutierrez was not driving the bus the entire time it raced through downtown, as was initially believed. After commandeering the bus from Gutierrez, Garcia took the wheel and was in control of the 16-ton vehicle as it crashed into the van, police said.

Though offering few details, investigators said that at times during the chase, Garcia grabbed Gutierrez by the neck and held a gun to her head.

English said Gutierrez was able to signal officers that the vehicle had been taken over. There were five passengers on the bus.

The hijacked bus careened through downtown streets, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights at up to 50 mph as police cruisers followed.

The chase ended when the bus, heading north on San Pedro Street, slammed into the van at 4th Street, then into a United Parcel Service delivery truck and at least a dozen empty cars in a restaurant parking lot at Boyd Street before stopping.

Garcia was arrested after a short foot chase in which officers fired shots, but no one was hit. Near the intersection lay the crumpled van.

Inside the van was Guadalupe Arevalos, 34, who grew up in East Los Angeles and had three children. Police said Arevalos died instantly.

Arevalos was traveling east on 4th Street and had a green light at the intersection, police said. A large building at the corner of San Pedro and 4th streets may have created a blind spot for her.

A clerk at the Los Angeles Central Library, Arevalos lived in a small home in Norwalk with her three children, ages 11, 7 and 5.

On Thursday, Arevalos’ family, friends and co-workers tried desperately to deal with pain and anger. They described Arevalos as an engaging woman who loved children and a volunteer who spent countless hours over the past two years leading Long Beach area Girl Scout Troop No. 25.

“She was the kind of person who’d stop you in the hall and ask you how you were doing and really mean it and really want to know,” said library spokesman Peter Persic.

Elizabeth Isen, who volunteered with Arevalos’ Scout troop, called her a person whose greatest love was children. “She was always running the kids everywhere,” Isen said tearfully.

Members of Arevalos’ family, after seeing TV footage of the crushing blow to a van that looked like the one Arevalos drove, began calling police, desperate to find out if she was involved. Some went to the crash scene, unsure and hoping for the best, only to learn the truth.

Arevalos’ estranged husband, Antonio Rodriguez, 31, called Garcia a coward who “doesn’t have respect for life--his or others.”

Though police assisted the family in dealing with their loss, Arevalos’ sister, Margarita Arevalos, questioned the decision to pursue the bus through crowded streets.

“It’s hard seeing the accident over and over [on television],” she said. “The cops should have pulled back, knowing it was downtown.”

LAPD Capt. Jim Tatreau disagreed Thursday, saying the police response was appropriate because hostages had been taken by a violent, gun-wielding suspect.

Police said Garcia, booked on suspicion of murder and held at Twin Towers Central Jail, probably would face numerous charges, among them murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and hate crimes. Garcia is expected to be arraigned today.

Police said Garcia, who they believe was living in the abandoned apartment building where he allegedly shot Lewis, has a criminal record, but they declined to elaborate.

Gutierrez, 48, was released from County-USC Medical Center Thursday and transported to Century City Hospital, County-USC officials said. She sustained a broken collarbone, broken nose and cuts. She declined to comment.

Authorities said others hurt in the crash suffered minor injuries.

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Times staff writers Ana Beatriz Cholo, Dalondo Moultrie, Jose Cardenas, Wendy Thermos and Hector Becerra contributed to this story.