Madman hijacks commuter bus in Georgia with 17 passengers and shoots hostage during wild chase

metro

From Patrick Reilly

A passenger was shot and killed when a gunman hijacked a commuter bus with 17 people on board in downtown Atlanta and pointed a gun at the bus driver’s head, police said.

Atlanta Police received three separate 911 calls beginning at 4:30 p.m. reporting that a man was holding hostages on a Gwinnett County Transit bus near 45 Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard and that shots had been fired.

Officers saw 39-year-old Joseph Grier point a gun at the bus driver’s head as the suspect forced him to drive off, sparking a wild chase.

As the bus weaved through traffic, it struck several cars, including a Gwinnett County patrol car, while Georgia State Patrol vehicles gave chase.

Aerial footage showed the bus speeding down the highway as other panicked drivers tried to avoid it.

At some point, all lanes of the highway were closed because police tried to stop the bus using various tactics.

In a desperate attempt to stop the bus, police apparently attempted a “PIT” maneuver, but were unsuccessful, 11alive reported.

The bus was finally disabled with the help of nail barriers, police said.

It came to a stop about 20 miles away in Tucker on Hugh Howell Road between Deer Ridge Drive and Rosser Road.

Passengers could be seen getting off the bus with their hands raised. Emergency responders immediately began resuscitating a victim Greer shot during the chaos.

The victim, whose identity has not yet been released, was taken to a local hospital where he died, police said.

Greer was taken into custody and is pending charges.

Dennis Durham told WSBTV that he was coming out of Gusto on Hugh Howell in Tucker when a car in front of him suddenly reversed to avoid the bus and crashed into the front of his vehicle.

“The bus came right in front of us and knocked over a lot of these cars, causing them to crash into each other,” Durham said. “I saw so many police cars in so many different places that my head was spinning.”

A man told the newspaper that his wife was one of the passengers on the bus. Greer appeared to be mentally ill, she said.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Greer had been arrested 19 times, including for possession of a handgun.