Video shows cops trying to slow down hijacked bus in Gwinnett

ATLANTA — Atlanta police on Wednesday released new body camera and dash cam video that sheds a little more light on officers’ efforts to slow down a Gwinnett County transit bus that was hijacked last month.

On June 11, Joseph Grier, 39, allegedly hijacked a transit bus in downtown Atlanta, where he was a passenger. Grier allegedly got into a fight with a passenger on the bus, and when the situation escalated, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Grier grabbed the passenger’s gun and shot and killed the man, later identified as Ernest Byrd Jr., 58.

Grier is later accused of holding the bus driver at gunpoint and the 17 other passengers on board hostage while forcing the driver to lead a large police presence on a chase through several counties in metro Atlanta.

RELATED: Passenger killed after man hijacks Gwinnett Transit bus in Atlanta, leading cops into chaotic chase: APD

The chase eventually ended in Stone Mountain, where the bus was stopped. But new video released by Atlanta police shows moments when officers used stop sticks to slow the hijacked bus.

Atlanta police released three separate videos detailing key moments of the chase.

In the first video, a seven-second dash cam video shows the scene as APD officers follow the bus on Interstate 85. The Gwinnett County Transit bus is traveling in the middle lanes of I-85 and a law enforcement vehicle is seen traveling on the right shoulder in an apparent attempt to get ahead of the bus.

We see cars stopped or parked on the side of the highway as the bus passes.

In the second clip, a one-minute and 45-second body camera video, an APD officer appears directly next to the bus at the beginning of the video.

On the radio, another officer can be heard saying: “Be careful, he’s moving. Be warned, everybody on the bus has their hands up. Hey, everybody, give him a way out. Give him a way out. Back up and give him a way out.” as the bus slows down and approaches law enforcement vehicles.

As the bus pulls away from the police, it appears to accelerate. In the video, the APD officer maintains his speed alongside the bus and is seen pulling out his stop sticks, which he holds out the window for a brief moment.

The officer then speeds past the bus. As it pulls onto I-85, he positions himself in a position where he can get far enough in front of the bus to throw the sticks.

“Units should be informed that the bus camera confirmed that the man was indeed carrying a firearm, sitting behind the driver in the blue shirt.” An officer said on the radio.

When the officer has enough of a head start, he gets out of his patrol car and grabs the stop sticks from the back seat. As the bus gets closer, the officer throws the sticks in front of the bus, where it appears the bus runs them over.

The third video begins with a police officer pulling up in his patrol car on the shoulder of the highway. As the bus approaches, he grabs the stop sticks and immediately runs into traffic where a vehicle stops to allow the officer to be in a good position to throw the stop sticks at the bus.

The officer approaches the bus and throws the stop sticks, while the third video clearly shows the bus rolling over the sticks intended to deflate the tires.

Joseph Grier was charged with the following:

• Murder
• Kidnapping (14 counts)
• Hijacking of a motor vehicle (1st degree)
• Aggravated assault (14 counts)
• Possession of a firearm or knife while committing or attempting to commit certain crimes
• Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon

Grier was at another crime scene hours earlier, where three people were shot at the Peachtree Center mall. In the video interview with 11Alive, Grier is seen wearing a light gray shirt and holding a watch. He told 11Alive he was at Wells Fargo and hid during the shooting.

RELATED: Hours before bus hijacking, murder suspect shows up at downtown crime scene

11Alive also learned from prison records that Grier served time between October 2011 and November 2014.

In April 2011, he was convicted of multiple counts of aggravated assault for possession of a knife during a crime in Fulton County. A few years earlier, in 2008, he was convicted of aggravated assault in Cobb County and in 2005, he was convicted of sexual assault of a minor in DeKalb County.