A man was arrested Friday evening after he allegedly hijacked a C-Tran bus in the Orchards area and tried to force the driver to take him to Portland.
Emergency dispatchers received a call at 6:06 p.m. about a bus driver on Route 72 who was being held hostage near Northeast Covington Road and Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard.
A man boarded the bus, implied he had a firearm and demanded to be taken to Portland, according to the Vancouver Police Department.
The driver didn’t see a firearm but complied and took the southbound I-205 onramp, C-Tran spokeswoman Christine Selk said. The driver activated the bus’ emergency alarm to alert dispatchers to the situation, she said. No other passengers were on board.
Vancouver police officers responded and began pursuing the bus, which was reportedly traveling 48 mph in the middle lane, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian.
Police deployed spike strips to stop the bus, but they were ineffective. However, heavy traffic near the north end of the Glenn Jackson Bridge allowed officers to get in front of the bus and stop it, Vancouver police said.
Officers rescued the driver who was uninjured. She was “shaken up but is fine,” Selk said. The driver, whose identity was not released, did not want to be interviewed, Selk said.
The suspect, identified as Anthony S. Lybeck, 31, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping and booked into the Clark County Jail. He is expected to appear in court Monday.
During the pursuit, officers blocked all of the I-205 southbound lanes and diverted traffic to East Mill Plain Boulevard. They also briefly shut down traffic merging onto I-205 from state Highway 14, according to the scanner. Traffic on I-205, at one point, was rerouted into the Highway 14 merging lanes to bypass the scene, Washington State Department of Transportation cameras showed.
