By LAURRYN SALEM | The State | Published: May 13, 2021 COLUMBIA, S.C. (Tribune News Service) Josh Flores, a father of two students who were on a Forest Lake Elementary School bus when it was hijacked by a Fort Jackson trainee, spoke out at a press conference with his lawyers Thursday. At the Strom Law Firm on Trenholm Road in Columbia, Flores, joined with attorneys Bakari Sellers and Jessica Fickling, called on authorities at Fort Jackson and Richland County School District Two to answer to the failures that led to a 23-year-old trainee taking 18 children and a bus driver hostage while they were on their way to school on May 6.
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A Fort Jackson trainee is in custody after a school bus full of students was hijacked in South Carolina, sheriff says
By Gregory Lemos, CNN
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott speaks at a news conference Thursday. (CNN)A Fort Jackson trainee is in custody after allegedly hijacking a school bus full of students on its way to Forest Lake Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina, the Richland County sheriff said.
Sheriff Leon Lott called the incident a very scary situation, but said none of the 18 children on board the bus were injured. The driver was also uninjured. Probably one of the scariest calls we can get in law enforcement, and as a school district, is that a school bus has been hijacked with kids on it with someone with a gun. And that s what we had this morning, Lott told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Tribune News Service) Brig. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr. knows the meaning of trust. The commanding general of Columbia s Fort Jackson U.S. Army installation has spent more than 30 years working to build trust with fellow soldiers up and down the ranks. It s a bond he works to extend beyond the gates of the fort and into the community that surrounds it. Following a shocking incident involving a trainee from Fort Jackson on Thursday, he s endeavoring to make sure those community ties stay strong. On Thursday, a 23-year-old Army trainee from New Jersey, Jovan Collazo, ran away from his unit on the army installation in the morning, armed with an unloaded M-4 rifle, and began trying to get rides from cars on Interstate 77, authorities said. He eventually made his way to Percival Road and boarded a school bus bound for Forest Lake Elementary, according to the Richland County Sheriff s Department. Collazo ordered the driver, at gunpoint, to drive. Several minutes later,
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Army recruit charged after allegedly hijacking school bus with 18 children on board
An Army trainee in South Carolina has been charged after he allegedly hijacked a school bus packed with children. The suspect was identified as Jovan Collazo, 23, of New Jersey. Officials said Collazo was armed, but no one was injured in the incident.
Collazo will face dozens of charges, including 19 counts of kidnapping for the 18 children and driver on board, according to Sheriff Leon Lott, of Richland County. Lott said it was probably one of the scariest calls we can get in law enforcement.
Brigadier General Milford Beagle said the recruit jumped the fence at Fort Jackson in an attempt to return home. Beagle said his weapon did not have ammunition but those on the bus would not know that.