By Ned Barnett
Raleigh, North Carolina (Reuters) - Authorities said on Friday that they identified a 32-year-old Virginia man suspected of hijacking a Greyhound bus Thursday night brandishing a handgun.
The North Carolina Highway Patrol identified the suspect as Jose Flores of Arlington, Virginia. He is being held without bond in the Warren County Jail in North Carolina. He is charged with one count of kidnapping.
Greyhound spokeswoman Maureen Richmond said the bus was traveling from Richmond. Virginia to Raleigh when the suspect approached the driver, a woman in her early 40s, brandishing a handgun, and commandeered the bus.
She said the driver pulled over in North Carolina near Exit 223 on I-85 southbound and all but two of the 35 passengers left the bus. Richmond said one of the remaining passengers was hiding and another refused to leave the driver alone with the suspect. Passengers who left the bus alerted police by cell phone, Richmond said.
North Carolina Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Gordon said the Highway Patrol received a call at 10:17 p.m. local time and troopers followed the bus southbound as it left I-85 at Exit 219. The bus with the driver still at the wheel pulled over at a Sunoco gas station on Route 1 in Norlina in Vance County. The driver and passengers safely exited the bus.
Flores was subdued on the bus after a trooper hit him with a stun gun, Gordon said. Local bomb squad officers searched the bus after Flores said there was bomb in his bag, but found no bomb, he said.
Gordon said there was no known motive for the hijacking and no one was injured. Richmond said Greyhound drivers are trained for emergency situations.
"The driver did a very good job or remaining professional and calm and ensuring the safety of the passengers," she said.
(Editing by Greg McCune)
