“They were being kids, I think that added to the frustration that he had.”
Local authorities in South Carolina have revealed that an armed military trainee who hijacked a school bus let all the children off because they were asking too many questions.
23-year-old Jovan Collazo, a trainee at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, got on the bus with a firearm and told the bus driver that he “didn’t want to hurt him” but to drive the bus to a town with the children on board.
Collazo ordered the children to the front of the bus, but the situation apparently became “frustrating’ for him as they bombarded him with questions.
Per the Independent, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters in a press conference: “The kids were asking questions. ‘Are you going to hurt us?’ ‘Are you a soldier?’ ‘Are you a bus driver?’ So they were being kids, they were being kids.
“I think that added to the frustration that he had.”
The alleged hijacker couldn’t put up with the question for long it would seem, and after just six minutes he let the driver and all the children off the bus. He drove the bus a short distance before abandoning the vehicle.
A Fort Jackson trainee is being charged with 19 counts of kidnapping, along with carjacking & gun charges after allegedly hijacking a school bus with students this morning. We have the latest details here @wspa7 https://t.co/2gOB6jfc4n pic.twitter.com/C1pfHamsYK
— Jason Raven (@JasonRaven_) May 7, 2021
The sheriff told said that it was the first time in his career that a school bus had been hijacked by an armed suspect, but that luckily the driver had been trained to deal with the situation.
He added: “Bus drivers are unsung heroes, they are, and we saw that today. We saw a bus driver who cared about the children on that bus.”
Discussing the experience for the children on board, Lott said: “There was six minutes, six minutes, they were traumatised. Six complete minutes that the bad guy was on the bus with a gun.”
Footage from a camera on the bus shows the hijacker board the vehicle, holding a firearm and wearing a t-shirt with the word “ARMY” on it.
The man can be heard shouting at the driver to “close the door, drive, drive!”
After abandoning the vehicle, Collazo was arrested and charged with 19 counts of kidnapping, armed robbery, and several other felonies, according to the sheriff.
