Armed South Carolina soldier hijacks bus full of elementary school kids, officials say
Category: News & Politics
Via: sister-mary-agnes-ample-bottom • 3 years ago • 20 commentsBy: Noah Feit, The State (MSN)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
COLUMBIA, S.C. — An armed soldier who ran off Fort Jackson was arrested Thursday morning after he boarded a bus with 18 elementary school children, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
© Tracy Glantz/TNS A soldier from Fort Jackson hijacked a school bus full of students headed to Forest Lake Elementary School, the Richland County Sheriff's Department said.
No students were injured, and neither was the school bus driver, Lott said at a news conference.
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"Very scary situation this morning," Lott said. "Fortunately it turned out well."
The soldier, whose name has not been publicly released, was armed with a rifle when he got on a bus headed for Forest Lake Elementary School in the Richland 2 district.
At about 7 a.m., the trainee, who was in his third week of training at the U.S. Army installation, left the base dressed in PT clothes, escaping military officials, according to Lott.
Initially, he tried to flag down cars on Interstate 77 before heading to Percival Road, where he saw a bus picking up children at a bus stop, Lott said.
Along with the children, the trainee got onto the bus and told the driver he didn't want to hurt anybody and wanted to be taken to the next town, according to Lott.
With the bus on the move, the trainee brought all of the kids to the front of the bus, where they began to frustrate him with lots of questions, Lott said.
The trainee soon had the driver stop near the intersection of Alpine and Percival roads and let the kids and driver off, the sheriff said. The trainee drove off a couple miles, but soon abandoned the bus and left his rifle on board. The trainee had difficulty driving the bus, according to the sheriff.
Lott said the area was quickly flooded by officers from his department, in addition to Columbia police officers and South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers.
After leaving the bus on Old Percival Road, the trainee tried to get rides and clothes when he was spotted on I-77 and was taken into custody without incident, according to Lott.
"All the kids are safe. The bus driver is safe, and the bad guy has been apprehended, so there's not any threats anymore," Lott said of the incident that lasted about an hour. "... I think God looked down on these kids this morning and wrapped his arms around them and took care of them."
The trainee is facing multiple counts of kidnapping and other charges, according to Lott. In addition to the driver, there were 18 students on board the bus, the sheriff said.
Information on why the trainee left Fort Jackson was not made available.
"Fort Jackson officials are aware of the incident involving a trainee this morning. We are working closely with Richland County Sheriff Department to respond to this incident," Fort Jackson spokeswoman LA Sully said in a news release.
Following the incident, Lott said authorities were working on addressing the needs of the kids on the bus.
"You can just imagine they were scared to death, along with that bus driver," Lott said. "I will give the bus driver credit. He kept his cool. He didn't overreact. He didn't get excited and kept his cool enough that kept the situation calm. His main concern was the safety of those kids, and he did his job."
Counseling services were sent to Forest Lake Elementary to help the students recover, Richland 2 Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis said at the news conference. The school district said it also notified parents about the incident.
"Once we learned all students were accounted for, and all students were physically safe, we wanted to immediately begin our social and emotional wellness protocol, which is to ensure that our students were receiving support, counseling support immediately upon arriving at school," Davis said. " ... I have never been as scared in my life upon receiving that call. A father of three daughters myself, and children who attend schools in our district. Every child is a precious child."
Richland 2 school board chairman James Manning said the district "unfortunately" has practiced for a crisis situation, and those protocols were successfully used Thursday morning to keep open lines of communication.
"I've never received a call that scared me as much as the call I got this morning that a bus had been hijacked with our students and staff," Manning said. "We are so happy that the students and the staff are safe."
Molly Spearman, the state Superintendent of Education echoed that sentiment about all the students being safe.
"I am relieved that no students were harmed during this alarming incident in Columbia. Thankful for the bus driver and law enforcement for responding quickly," Spearman said on Twitter.
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Along with the children, the trainee got onto the bus and told the driver he didn't want to hurt anybody and wanted to be taken to the next town, according to Lott.
With the bus on the move, the trainee brought all of the kids to the front of the bus, where they began to frustrate him with lots of questions, Lott said.
The trainee soon had the driver stop near the intersection of Alpine and Percival roads and let the kids and driver off, the sheriff said. The trainee drove off a couple miles, but soon abandoned the bus and left his rifle on board. The trainee had difficulty driving the bus, according to the sheriff.
Ok, I know this isn't funny, but I had to laugh when the kids 'began to frustrate him with lots of questions', so he makes them get off the bus, along with the bus driver. I immediately thought of this (but multiplied times 20):
Me too. A 'bad gu' who ran off-base with a rifle did not want to hurt anybody. What in the world could have been "emergency" enough tor all these histronics, and racking up charges?!!!
Fortunate for these bus "attendees." Now, school buses are the "new" classroom 'incident', nevertheless.
"Information on why the trainee left Fort Jackson was not made available."
Venturing a guess I'd say he has a mental problem. Glad no one was hurt or killed !!! He'll be happy as well when he figures it all out.
I'm not so sure it's mental. I believe Ft Jackson is a Army basic training site. It sounds like from the way he was dressed he was about to do morning PT and finally just had enough. He was going AWOL. Maybe he had enough of the Army and was going to find his way home.
Maybe, either way what he did was irrational.
I'm glad he didn't hurt or kill someone that would have stayed with him for a long long time. Plus of course the innocent are safe ,, Good outcome. Wish they all ended as well.
At about 7 a.m., the trainee, who was in his third week of training at the U.S. Army installation, left the base dressed in PT clothes, escaping military officials, according to Lott.
Was he being chased, or did they mean he was able to leave the base undetected? I guess he would be pretty conspicuous dressed in his PT clothes and carrying his rifle.
Stupid question: Rather than create all the drama, couldn't he have just quit?
To answer your question...yes. I think.
Maybe he couldn't get an Uber....?
Yes, but BT can be very stressful and some people break. I went through BT for both the Army and Coast Guard. I've seen people do the stupidest shit during BT.
I know without a doubt that I couldn't do it, any of it...starting with the decision to volunteer.
Yeah, sounds like he was wanting to get the hell out of there.
Harder than he thought maybe...
The article states that he was in his third week of training and with Fort Jackson being a basic training facility odds are that he was in basic.
The article did not state if the rifle was loaded. My guess is that it wasn't loaded since unless something quite different happened outside the norms of basic.
If it was or wasn't the driver did what he had to do and kept calm thinking of the kids. Kudos to him.
The guy got frustrated with the questions from the kids and let everyone off the bus. That part is really funny even though this was a very serious situation. I had to laugh remembering my kids when they were little, a 100 questions a minute.
Do they issue Army recruits a rifle right away? I never saw a rifle in basic until I had to fire at the range
It's been a damn long time since I was in basic but the answer to your question is no, you don't see a weapon until the second phase of basic, usually week 4/6. That was back in the day but I don't think that has changed much today.
So how did he get a rifle?
I have no idea, Trout. Unless the rules have changed since I was in and the question about it being loaded or not would also fall into that category. Live ammo was only on the rifle range.
As a side note I wasn't aware that the Air Force issued rifles, I thought it was just Lattes.
Second week. Used for Drill & Ceremony and to hold above one's head while doing laps for being a dumb ass.
Long time ago for me but by week three we would be issued rifles for drill practice purposes but no bullets
I kinda thought so to. I could just picture the kids leaning in hanging on his every word. Probably freaked him out.
"AWwww !!" "No More !!!" "Get Out !!!" "Now !"
chuckle
They are all so fortunate.
"Counseling services were sent to Forest Lake Elementary to help the students recover"
I don't think the kids need counseling, it was a grand adventure for them.