Video Shows NJ Army Trainee Hijacking School Bus In SC: Police

NEW JERSEY — An Army trainee from New Jersey has been charged after hijacking a school bus packed with children in South Carolina on Thursday, authorities said. A video was released that authorities say captures the incident (see below).

Jovan Collazo, 23, has been charged with 19 counts of kidnapping, armed robbery, carjacking among other changes, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said during a news conference.

Around 7 a.m. Thursday, Collazo left Fort Jackson without authorization while attempting to return home, according to a release from Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office. Fort Jackson is the U.S. Army’s largest training facility and is located in Columbia, South Carolina.

Lott said Collazo was trying to stop some cars, and the drivers called the sheriff’s department.

Collazo "forced his way” onto the school bus as the driver was letting children on at a bus stop, Lott said.

“He told the bus driver he didn’t want to hurt anybody, he wanted him to drive him to the next town,” Lott said.

The sheriff played a video at Thursday’s news conference that showed Collazo board the bus, point a rifle at the bus driver and shout at the driver to close the door and drive. The video starts at 5:35:

Collazo was on the bus with the students and driver for six minutes, Lott said.

Eighteen children were on the bus and used their cell phones to call their parents, Lott said.

The children began repeatedly asking Collazo if he was going to hurt them or the driver, which “frustrated” the gunman, Lott said. He then ordered the driver and children to get off and drove the bus for several miles before abandoning it, Lott said.

Collazo then “went through neighborhoods” looking for clothes and was arrested by deputies without incident, Lott said.

“A very scary situation this morning,” the sheriff said. “I cannot tell you the emotions that you feel when you hear something like that.”

The sheriff praised the bus driver, calling him a hero. “We saw a bus driver who cared about the children on that bus, and he used his training to protect those children. And if we have a hero, it’s the bus driver,” said Lott, who declined to identify the driver.

Collazo was in his third week of basic training with his unit at Fort Jackson, Commander Brig. Gen. Milford H. Beagle Jr. said during a news conference.

“He was a very quiet individual, hailed from New Jersey,” said Beagle. "We assessed that he was just trying to make an attempt to go back home.”

His hometown was not identified.

Beagle went on to apologize to the community for the incident.

"To our community — this was a failure with regard to me in terms of our accounting procedures and process,” Beagle said.

“For me, this was a key failure in the accountability process that I will fix going forward because the outcome potentially could have been much worse,” he said.

Collazo remains in custody with Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

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