Sheriff: Army trainee charged after hijacking school bus
By MEG KINNARDyesterday
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — An Army trainee has been arrested and charged with dozens of crimes after authorities say he boarded a South Carolina school bus with a gun Thursday and held the driver and elementary students hostage before letting them off the bus.
During a news conference, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the incident started at around 7 a.m. near Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army’s largest basic training facility, located in Columbia. The trainee, dressed in physical training clothes, “ran off post and escaped” with a rifle from the installation, Lott said. Deputies then started receiving calls about someone standing on a nearby interstate flagging down cars.
The trainee, whom Lott identified later Thursday as Jovan Collazo, then went to a nearby bus stop where children were waiting to be taken to Forest Lake Elementary School, Lott said, and boarded the bus himself, armed with the rifle.
“He told the bus driver he didn’t want to hurt anybody; he wanted him to drive him to the next town,” Lott said.
https://apnews.com/article/hijacking-arrests-983d15f70ebf3ad8129e1809ca558f47