Man steals school bus and rams oncoming cars during police chase, Washington cops say
A man hired to work on school buses sped off in an empty one and rammed into other cars, Seattle Police Department said in a news release.
Anthony Guerrero-Martinez, 21, requested keys on Tuesday for the 33,000-pound school bus at a maintenance shed police said in a probable cause statement. Guerrero-Martinez was not authorized to drive the bus, police said.
As he drove the bus off the lot, he grazed another worker who tried to slow him down, the statement says.
Guerrero-Martinez barreled through the parking lot at 30 or 40 mph in a 5 mph zone, the witness told police. The worker jumped out of his way when he realized Guerrero-Martinez wasn’t slowing down.
“It would’ve killed me,” the worker told police.
The bumper of the bus smacked the worker’s leg, leaving him injured, authorities said.
Police chased Guerrero-Martinez for seven minutes and watched him “swerve across traffic, running red lights” and “intentionally” rammore than 15 vehicles along the way, authorities said.
A witness told police she saw Guerrero-Martinez hit a city bus, then steered toward a bus stop where five or six people were waiting.
The people fled and he struck the bus stop, destroying a fire hydrant and sign, the statement says.
Prosecutors said the man is a “danger” to the public.
Guerrero-Martinez faces charges including theft of a motor vehicle and two counts of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.
He had an initial court hearing on Wednesday where a judge set his bail at $200,000.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Man steals school bus and rams oncoming cars during police chase, Washington cops say."
