A CTA bus driver in Chicago climbed out of her own window Tuesday night after a passenger pulled a gun, hijacked her bus with people still on board, and forced her to run four red lights down Pulaski Road, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say Quentin Lewis, 36, boarded bus 8611 near Jackson Boulevard and Pulaski Road around 8 p.m. without paying. About two miles in, near 26th Street, he spotted somebody outside, pointed a gun with an extended magazine at the person, and ordered the driver to keep going.
Lewis sat right behind the driver and waved the gun around while she ran red light after red light for more than three miles, according to prosecutors. It ended near 55th and Pulaski, where a passenger yanked the emergency lever and stopped the bus cold.
“Go, go, go.”
What prosecutors say Lewis demanded of the driver at gunpoint
The two passengers ran off, and the driver escaped through her side window and ran to another CTA bus for help. Lewis jumped off too, ran to a nearby strip mall, and climbed into a Dodge Ram that was still running outside a bakery, officials say. Police arrested him there around 8:25 p.m., and a loaded Glock with an extended magazine was recovered from the truck. Nobody was hurt.
Lewis, a convicted felon, is charged with kidnapping, aggravated unlawful restraint, possessing a weapon as a felon, and possessing a stolen vehicle, Chicago police said. The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court. A judge ordered him held at Cook County Jail on Thursday, and he is due back in court on November 10.
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