Atlanta police stated one particular person was fatally shot on a commuter bus Tuesday afternoon that led officers on a chase for miles from the town into neighboring suburbs, with tv information footage exhibiting it barreling by way of rush hour site visitors and putting a number of automobiles.
News helicopters adopted the dramatic pursuit of the Gwinnett County Transit bus, which police stated took off after officers responded to a report of gunfire on a bus and a doable hostage scenario simply after 4:30 p.m. close to downtown Atlanta.
Ben Gray / AP
“Our preliminary name was of a gunman on the bus, that was holding hostages, and presumably there had been a discharged weapon,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum stated in a Tuesday night information convention.
An officer arrived a couple of minute after the preliminary 911 name and “confronted the perpetrator, that then pressured the bus driver to drive off,” sparking the chase, Schierbaum stated.
Atlanta police stated the bus was finally stopped miles away in neighboring DeKalb County. The suspect, recognized by Schierbaum as 39-year-old Joseph Grier, was taken into custody. Grier, a convicted felon with 19 prior arrests, was armed with a handgun, Schierbaum stated.
One of the individuals aboard the bus died of an obvious gunshot wound, Schierbaum disclosed. There was no phrase of some other accidents to passengers or the motive force.
Schierbaum stated that there have been a complete of 17 individuals aboard the bus through the pursuit, together with the motive force. One of the 911 calls that dispatchers obtained from the bus remained open through the entirety of the chase, Schierbaum stated, serving to authorities deliver it to an finish.
“It was that info that our name takers and dispatchers had been listening to that was fed initially to the Atlanta Police Department, after which to the Georgia State Patrol, after which our companions at Gwinnett … to assist craft an finish to our hostage scenario,” Schierbaum stated.
John Gilbert of suburban Dacula stated his spouse, Paulette, takes the bus to and from downtown Atlanta for work three days per week. He stated she referred to as him from the bus and stated one man had shot one other man. Gilbert instructed his spouse to get off the telephone as a result of he did not need the person to assume she was calling police and shoot her.
Then he waited for 40 or 45 minutes with out understanding what was occurring earlier than his spouse lastly referred to as him as soon as she was off the bus.
“I felt like I had a gap in me,” Gilbert stated by way of tears. “I’m simply glad she’s alright.”
Television information footage confirmed the bus putting a number of automobiles and crossing onto the mistaken aspect of a highway with police in pursuit. At one level, a police automobile seems to get in entrance of the bus, but it surely stored going.
The pursuit ended when the bus went off the roadway, DeKalb County Police Chief Mirtha Ramos instructed reporters. Authorities then used a BearCat to “immobilize” the bus, she added.
