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Quick-thinking bus driver foils possible hijacking after vicious attack

Posted at 3:40 PM, Jun 02, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-02 16:59:17-04

PORT ANGELES, Wash. -- A Washington state bus driver is being called a hero, after a violent attack on board her bus that was caught on surveillance video.

A look at the video,first obtained by KCPQ, shows the terrible beatdown of an elderly passenger and the one move by the bus driver that kept the attacker from possibly hijacking the bus.

It started out like any other Saturday afternoon -- people getting on a bus in Port Angeles. But things quickly changed.

In the video, watch the man on the right. He stands and kicks an 80-year-old passenger in the face, then appears to choke her as she screams for help.

The driver stops the bus and stands, and the man then comes at her and grabs her neck. She's finally able to break away, open the doors and call for help.

That's when the man goes back for the first woman, who appears to be on her knees clinging to a seat.

Several passengers are at the back of the bus, huddled together on their cell phones, as the suspect grabs the woman by the neck again.

The bus driver opens the rear doors and the passengers run off the bus. But the attacker isn't done yet. He turns his attention to the bus driver again and screams at her to close the doors. But she's got other plans.

She darts from her seat and gets out before the doors close behind her. Somewhere during all this, she disabled the battery on the bus -- and here's why that's important.

After she gets off the bus, the suspect tries to take off with the empty bus, but he can't -- because of the heroic, quick-thinking move by the driver.

The suspect is in custody and is expected in court Thursday.

KCPQ reached out to the driver, but she didn't wish to talk about the incident.