Gunman hijacks Georgia bus and kills passenger, police say

Fulton County law enforcement on Wednesday booked a suspect on numerous charges. The Georgia man is alleged to have killed a bus passenger and held the driver at gunpoint. The suspect forced the driver to navigate the bus through three Georgia counties with law enforcement in pursuit, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, said in a statement. Seventeen people, including the driver, were on board the bus, said Atlanta Chief of Police Darin Schierbaum.

Who is the suspect? Alleged bus hijacker Joseph Grier, 39, is a Georgia resident and convicted felon with 19 prior arrests, Schierbaum said. Because of Grier’s criminal record, he was not supposed to have a gun. He took the gun of a male bus passenger he was arguing with, the GBI alleged. When the police chase finally ended in Stone Mountain, Ga., Grier was arrested on the scene without further incident, the GBI said.

What was the chase like? Aerial footage of the chase shows the Gwinnett County Transit bus hitting vehicles and driving into oncoming traffic. The bus tires were flattened in the pursuit, and a state trooper fired his rifle into the bus’ engine compartment, the GBI said. The bus slowed down and went off the road in DeKalb County, where law enforcement drove a tactical vehicle in front of the bus to prevent it from moving again.