14 DAY TRIAL // A school bus was hijacked on Thursday, when a man yielding a knife took control of the bus in Arkansas.
Eleven children were on the bus at the time, Jacksonville Police Department Capt. Kenny Boyd tells Arkansas online.
Police have apprehended the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Nicholas John Miller. At 7:20 a.m., Miller approached a woman and asked that she give him a vehicle.
When she responded that she didn't have a car, he got on a bus at 1000 block of North First Street in Jacksonville. He had an "unknown type of knife" on him at the time.
According to THV 11, Deb Roush with the Pulaski County Special School District added that the bus had made a scheduled stop at a station.
"That's when he ran and jumped on the bus," Boyd explains.
Jacksonville police followed the vehicle on John Harden Drive to Arkansas 5, where Cabot and Arkansas State Police teams jumped in. They eventually stopped him on Mountain Springs Road.
"They called us and said somebody was on the bus and they've got a knife. [...] You never think somebody would do something like that," one of the children's parents says.
"It was scary. [...] He was saying cuss words," the child, Hidekel Romo, says.
April Kiser with Jacksonville Police Dept mentions that the kids have not been injured.
"You do train for barricaded suspects and things like that of course. [...] It does hit home a little closer when it is children involved," Boyd notes.
The driver of the bus tried to keep the assailant calm, to avoid injuries to the children.
"From what we've seen so far, we're just so proud of our bus driver who kept calm and kept the kids safe," School district spokesman Deborah Roush states.
Miller has been charged with stealing the vehicle, kidnapping on 12 counts and two counts of aggravated assault.