U.S.

Hate May Have Sparked Bus Hijack

May 4, 2001 / 10:33 AM EDT / AP

Hate may have motivated an alleged bus hijacker to shoot a black man before leading police on a chase that ended in a deadly crash, authorities said.

Carlos Garcia told Anthony Lewis, 35, that "he did not like black men associating with Hispanic women" before critically wounding him Wednesday, a police statement alleged.

"Hatred and prejudice" apparently sparked the attack, Detective Dennis English said at a news conference Thursday, but he declined to provide any other details.

Garcia, 33, of Los Angeles, could be charged Friday with murder, kidnapping and other crimes stemming from the shooting and the wild bus chase that killed a van driver, injured seven other people and damaged more than a dozen cars.

Garcia was being held in the jail ward at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where he was treated for cuts to his face, head, hands and feet from the crash, Detective Dennis English said.

Lewis was in critical condition at the same hospital with wounds to his chest and abdomen.

Bus driver, Ema Gutierrez, 48, who had facial cuts and several loose teeth, was in fair condition when she was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Thursday evening, said Adelaida De La Cerda, spokeswoman at County-USC Medical Center.

Police said the shooting occurred about 4:20 p.m. in the Rampart area near downtown. Garcia then allegedly commandeered a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus with five passengers aboard, including a 4-year-old girl.

He put a gun to the driver's head but at some point during the chase pulled her from the seat and took the wheel, English said.

The minutes-long pursuit reached speeds of 40 mph to 50 mph before the 33,000-pound bus struck a minivan, which skated a half-block into a parked UPS delivery van. The bus also struck the delivery van and then plowed through a metal fence and smashed a row of cars in a parking lot before coming to rest.

The UPS driver was treated for minor injuries.

Garcia allegedly jumped out the shattered front window and tried to pull a woman from a parked car and steal it before he was tackled by officers. An officer fired several shots at him during the foot chase but missed.

A handgun believed to belong to Garcia was later found in the parking lot, police said.

The minivan driver killed in the crash was identified as Guadalupe Arevalos, 34, of Norwalk. The mother of three girls was separated from her husband and cared for her children while working down a job since 1998 as clerk-typist at the downtown Central Library.

She was heading home when her minivan was hit.

"She was a good mom. She loved her kids," her husband Antonio Rodriguez told KCAL-TV. As for the alleged hijacker, he replied in a choked voice: "He should be shot."

"I knew her," said Peter Persic, library spokesman. "She was a wonderful friend to everybody here in the library. We would all buy our Girl Scout cookies from her. She always took the time to ask how everyone was, what was goin on in their lives."

"It's absolutely a terrible, devastating loss," he said. "You try to make sense of it, but there is no making sense of something like this."

Police defended the chase.

"This was a violent suspect who was engaged in violence as we pursued him," said Capt. Jim Tatreau, commander of the Robbery-Homicide Division. "And I can't think of a person who more needed to be pursued. ... It was a decision that, quite frankly, would appear to be very proper."