Bus Hijacked In D.C., Pedestrian Killed After Being Struck

A bus was hijacked in D.C. by a passenger, and now an innocent pedestrian is dead. At approximately 10:30 a.m. on May 3, Keith Loving boarded a Metrobus, attacked the driver and then drove off in the bus, eventually striking a pedestrian while trying to get away, according to the Washington Post.

Loving got on the U6 bus in the 3800 block of Jay Street NE as the bus was on its way to Lincoln Heights. He rode for several blocks standing right next to the driver and staring at him. When the driver asked him if he wanted to take a seat, he was attacked at the next stop with a pair of needle-nose pliers. As the driver was being attacked, the ten passengers on the bus escaped out the back door. After fighting off his attacker, the driver pressed his emergency call button and escaped as well.

Loving closed the door and drove the bus to Minnesota Avenue, heading north for a few blocks before jumping a curb and crossing the parking lot of a Crown gas station near Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue. The bus then jumped another curb before hitting Anthony Payne as he was walking across the parking lot. Payne, a 40-year old employee at the gas station, was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Because the bus driver was able to push the emergency call button, police were on the scene fairly quickly and surrounded the bus after Payne was hit. As police had their guns pointed at the windshield, Loving revved the engine, and that’s when police swarmed the vehicle and overpowered him. The entire incident happened in an area that is normally busy with motorists and was over in about three minutes.

Loving has been charged with second-degree murder and isn’t unfamiliar to authorities. A relative, who didn’t want to be identified, said that he was a troubled guy and suffered from mental illness. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said that he was not easy to arrest.

“The suspect appeared to be very violent and resistant. It’s a bizarre incident.”

The attack by Loving, a 30-year old northeast Washington resident appears to have been random. Witnesses say he appeared to be either distraught or under the influence of drugs. It was also reported that he may have also attacked a woman earlier in the day.

Payne, a northwest Washington resident, was well liked and the people that knew him from his job and his apartment building were saddened to learn that such a kind and generous man had to die in such a horrific way. He was taking out the trash when the tragic incident took place. The bus driver suffered a back injury but was not seriously hurt.

Amalgamated Transit spokesman David Stephen said that attacks on bus drivers have increased over the past few years, and federal authorities report that there was a 37 percent increase in attacks on bus drivers in 2015. Metro put into effect a program to help drivers deal with difficult passengers, focusing on specific areas in the District, Virginia and Maryland, especially after several high profile attacks on drivers were reported.

“Our operators of our buses and trains, and at our stations, are the people who are on the receiving end of these activities. Whenever one of our people is in danger, that means the riders are in danger.”

Some Metro buses have protective shields that separate passengers from the bus driver, and while the district has been slowly phasing them in, this bus did not have that feature. Perhaps if it had the bus hijacked in D.C. resulting in a fatality would not be a reality.

[AP Photo/Andrew Harnik]