Austin, TX – As a man hijacks a bus in Texas, people and police may be wondering what the motive may have been.
Police have not yet released the name of the hijacker .
Austin police Lt. James Nisula tells Associated Press Radio the man hijacked a Capital Metro transit bus this past Saturday afternoon. Witnesses the hijacker was armed, but oddly enough the man hijacked the bus only to kick the driver and two passengers off the bus.
Police believe no one was on the bus at the time of the hijacking. So without any hostages, the hijacker took the steering wheels himself and drove the bus off, heading toward his final destination of Bastrop, Texas.
The man boarded the bus about 4:30 PM in the 8000 block of Thaxton Road. The bus hijacker led police on a 30 mile pursuit starting on Highway 71, with cops trying several times to get the driver to pull over, but he refused.
Eventually, highway patrol put down road spikes and deflated the bus tires in order to end the car chase. Eventually, the hijacker pulled the bus into an AutoZone parking lot and the bus was immediately surrounded.
Police heard a gun shot from within the bus and when police went in to investigate they found the hijacker dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.