LA Metro hijacking ends in tragedy: County leader pushing for safety enhancements

LOS ANGELES - In order to sense safety on the Metro system, LA County Supervisor and Metro Chair Janice Hahn took a bus to the Metro Board meeting Thursday, where she and others reflected on the nightmarish bus hijacking that happened a day earlier.

It was between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m. on Wednesday. One of the things no bus driver wants to face was happening: a hijacking with a gun—and a passenger murdered. Board Chair Janice Hahn said, "We can't allow people to bring weapons onto our buses."

At the regular Thursday Metro Board meeting, there was a lot of talk about the real-life nightmare on this bus, allegedly committed by a 51-year-old named Lamont Campbell.

The hijacked bus was followed by the LAPD for more than an hour until it was stopped by spike strips, and SWAT team officers used flash grenades to storm the bus and arrest Campbell.

At the Metro Board meeting, Board Director Fernando Dutra said, "Thank God there was a barricade on that bus." One Metro Board member after another praised a new driver safety system.

The chair, Janice Hahn, said, "This bus had one of the new barriers around the driver, which kept this hijacker from completely taking control of the bus..."

Metro officials say, as of Wednesday, plastic driver barriers have been installed in 851 buses out of their over 2,100 buses, and the rest are set to be completed by the end of the year.

Mayor and Metro Board Director Karen Bass said, "If that had not been there, he probably wouldn't have been able to hit the alarm. He definitely would not have been able to put out the 9-1-1 message."

And something else the board believes would have made a difference was a system that would spot a weapon. The pilot project is looking at systems using:

• Video analytics, which look for the brandishing of weapons on the system;
• Millimeter waves, which detect potential weapons that could be hidden on people;
• Dual-lane systems, which detect items that resemble weapons.

Hahn said, "You can't go to a Dodger game without going through a metal detector. You certainly can't go to the airport or board a plane without going through a metal detector... even concerts."

Campbell is being held on $2 million bond. He was booked on suspicion of murder.