Posted on 05/06/2021 10:19:38 AM PDT by buckalfa
RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – The Richland County sheriff held a press conference Thursday morning after a Fort Jackson trainee left the base and hijacked a school bus.
Sheriff Leon Lott said the incident happened at about 7 a.m.
Lott said the trainee was wearing PT clothes when he left the base with a rifle. The trainee attempted to hitch hike on I-77.
Someone called the sheriff’s office about a man attempting to flag down cars on the interstate. Shortly after, a deputy was stopped on Percival Road by a parent of one of the students on the school bus. The parent told the deputy that their child was on the bus and there was a man with a gun on the bus, Lott said.
Lott said after the trainee didn’t get picked up on the interstate, he noticed some students were waiting at a bus stop on Percival Road.
After all of the Forest Lake Elementary School students got onto the bus, the trainee got on the bus with his rifle and told the driver he did not want to hurt them. He also told the driver to take him to the next town, Lott said.
The bus driver started driving, and the trainee brought all of the students to the front of the bus, Lott said. The students started asking the trainee several questions.
The trainee got frustrated and then made the driver and the 18 elementary school students get off of the bus.
The trainee drove the bus for a few miles before abandoning the bus. Lott said he left the rifle on the bus.
Lott said the trainee ran through a neighborhood, attempting to get a ride and find new clothes.
Deputies spotted the trainee near Percival Road and I-77. He was arrested without incident.
No injuries were reported.
The sheriff’s office said he will be charged with several counts of kidnapping as well as other charges.
“You can just imagine they were scared to death,” Lott said. “I’ll give the bus driver credit. He kept his cool. He didn’t overreact. … His main concern was those kids and he did his job.”
“I have been on the board now for over 10 years, and I’ve never received a call that scared me as much as the call that I got this morning. That a bus had been hijacked with our students and staff,” Richland School District Two School Board Chairman James Manning said. “We’re very happy that they’re safe.”
Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis said counseling services were made available to the students upon their arrival at the elementary school.
Richland School District Two released the following statement:
“We are so fortunate and grateful that this incident ended peacefully thanks to the actions of our bus driver, our students, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, the City of Columbia Police Department, the S.C. Highway Patrol and other first responders,” said Dr. Baron R. Davis, Superintendent of Richland School District Two.
The driver’s calm response exemplified the training he received through a Safe Pupil Training course. This course is required training for district bus drivers.
Davis said, “Once we were certain all students were accounted for and physically safe, we immediately began deploying social and emotional counseling resources to the school so that our students could begin the process of healing as they are dealing with a traumatic event. We will continue to provide counseling services for the students and their families, our bus driver and employees as long as necessary. We will also cooperate fully with law enforcement as they investigate this incident.” Fort Jackson released the following statement:
“A Fort Jackson trainee ran away from his unit this morning with his Army issued rifle. The trainee managed to hijack a school bus before being subdued to Richland County Sherriff Department in the vicinity of Percival Road.
Fort Jackson leaders are aware and working closely with Richland County Sherriff Department throughout the initial stages of this incident.
This was a failure in our accountability procedures that we truly regret and are apologetic to our community.
We are thankful for the fast actions of RCSD and the local community to assist in the apprehension of the individual.”
“Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell you, I gotta plead ignorance on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing is frowned upon... you know, cause I’ve worked in a lot of offices, and I tell you, people do that all the time.”
I can just imagine they were pretty excited and will gleefully tell the story for years to come.
Did I miss it? What is this trainee’s name and where is this trainee’s picture?
How did someone this Looney get to trainee status in the first place? Was he doped up?
LOL!!!
Dirty Harry would’ve known how to handle this.🙄
"Is that an M-4 you're carrying?"
"What's the maximum effective range on that baby?"
"Is that a 20 or 30 round mag in it?"
Apparently, the first 911 call wasn’t responded to in a timely manner or not at all.
Every time there is no name and no picture I tend to make an assumption.
9 out of 10 times.
Lots of pictures of the bus and police cars but zero for the suspect. With that I’m going with the usual of not needing to look.
He had only been on base for 3 weeks when he “ran off the base this morning with a rifle”. Someone needs to have a few words with the recruiter.
“How did someone this Looney get to trainee status in the first place?”
The same way that Nidal Hassan and the crazy who killed and cut up the woman soldier Guillen got to Fort Hood.
The first thing (worst case scenario) that came to mind, was
a local case of a school bus kidnapping in California.
1976 Chowchilla kidnapping: The abduction of a school bus driver and 26 children, ages 5 to 14, in Chowchilla, Ca. on July 15, 1976. They were kidnapped and buried alive in a tractor trailer. 12 feet underground in a dug out trench.
It’s a very long, very detailed story, I don’t want to hog up too much space on FR.,but suffice to say, the bus driver and older boys were able to dig their way out, move a manhole cover and allow the everyone to get out. The three kidnappers were going to ask for $5. Million, but didn’t get to ask before the children were freed. The three were imprisoned for 36 years, with two let out in 2012. The last kidnapper, now 67, is eligible for parole in 2024.
Good questions. How in the name of God does a trainee manage to leave Fort Jackson with a rifle? The cadre in basic training are typically very tight about the custody of the weapons and ammo.
Not when they are a certain color.....Some colors have more rights than others....
The Army is getting some really high quality recruits these days.
All that matters are the political views of the “trainee.” If he is MAGA, he deserves the death penalty. If not, he just needs some refresher training.
The question becomes what are the perp’s pronouns?
Had a really fun time briefing the Bn Cdr and CSM on that one.
Well, wait till you see what the police are recruiting...
The stuff of legends in NCO clubs....
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