UN I V E R S I T Y D A I L Y K A N S A N
Friday, November 3,1995
9A
School-bus siege ends with hijacker's death
Police rescue children after 75-minute chase in Dade County, Fla.
The Associated Press
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A hijacker with a grudge against the Internal Revenue Service commandeered a school bus yesterday, taking 11 disabled children and the driver on a harrowing ride before police shot him to death.
The man, who claimed to have a bomb, led dozens of police cruisers along two major highways, finally directing the school bus' regular driver to Joe's Stone Crab, a popular restaurant where the hijacker worked as a
waiter.
During the 15-mile chase, police tried to negotiate with him. When that failed, they fired at least three shots, which ended the 75-minute standoff.
"My information is, he was not shot in the bus. He was shot in the doorway," said Pat Brickman, a Metro-Dade police representative. "The bus driver said she felt threatened because the subject, when he argued with her, would reach inside his jacket. She thought he might shoot her."
Television video showed police swarming around the bus' front door and then dragging the suspect away. By late morning, the suspect's bloody body lay in an alley near the restaurant, covered with a yellow tarp.
Police said the hijacker, who worked as a waiter at Joe's restaurant and had some tax dispute with the IRS, told them he had a bomb and threatened to blow up the bus.
Police determined afterward that the device, which was in what police described as a satchel or handbag, was not a bomb.
Dade County Schools Superintendent Octavio Visiedo said 11 students and a driver were on the bus by the time it reached Miami Beach. An aide, a mother and two other students were on the bus when it was first hijacked but were let off at two different stops early in the ordeal, authorities said.
The 11 children who remained on the bus throughout the hijacking were described by their principal as special-needs students with speech impediments. The children and their parents hugged and wept when reunited just before midday at Blue Lakes.
One of the children, 7-year-old Brian Morales, was interviewed as he was reunited with his family and would only say the hijacker was a bad person.
Henry Fraind, a county schools representative, said the children and the two school employees had escaped serious injury.
At least one student was cut by flying glass from a window that was broken when the suspect was shot, and the student was taken to a hospital, officials at the scene said.
The aide, a diabetic, also was taken to a hospital for an insulin shot.
Metro-Dade and Florida Highway Patrol cruisers formed a convoy around the bus as the hijacker directed its driver north on State Road 826 and then east toward downtown on State Road 836, a major east-west highway.
"The kids were crying throughout, and every time the bus was stop, the hijacker would stoop down ... and surround himself by the children so that officers could not see anyone was on the bus." Brickman said.
The bus finally stopped outside the landmark restaurant, where the hijacker had said he wanted to eat lunch, said Randy Egues, a police representative.
Dozens of police cars surrounded the bus and police crouched behind them, aiming weapons at the bus.
After they were rescued, the children were carried, crying, into the nearby restaurant and given ice cream and other goodies.
Two employee of Joe's told The Associated Press that the hijacker had worked there as a waiter but had walked off the job Wednesday night, apparently because of the tax dispute.
Worried parents hurried to the scene in Miami Beach, as did Visiedo.
"The bus driver frankly was a hero," Vistado said. "She never panicked."
One parent, Vivian Ellis, waited for her child at the school. "They're OK. I'm happy," she said, weeping.
Balkan factions seek solutions
The Associated Press
DAYTON, Ohio — With the presentation of the first elements of a possible peace treaty, international mediators and the leaders of warring factions in the former Yugoslavia moved yesterday from rhetoric to hard negotiations on how to achieve peace in Bosnia and Croatia.
The first full day of talks began with U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke holding a series of morning shuttle sessions with the three Balkan presidents in separate buildings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
A source close to the Serbian delegation said a meeting was being planned between Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnian President Allja Izetbovic. Bosnian officials could not be reached to confirm the report, and U.S. officials said they knew of no such session.
After discussions Wednesday evening among Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, the two Balkan leaders agreed to resolve peacefully the issue of the last sliver of Croat-
"This will be a long journey, but it all starts here."
Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
At Christopher's urging, the two leaders promised to work on normalizing relations between Serbia and Croatia by providing for the return of all refugees and by respecting
ian territory still controlled by Serb rebels.
human rights.
Only a few hours earlier, Christopher formally convened the meeting at the base near Dayton, saying, "This will be a long journey, but it all
starts here."
Sitting across a conference table from Tudjman, Milosevic and Izetbegovic, Christopher said, "The world can and will help you make peace."
The aim is a settlement to end 4 1/2 years of war that has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and sparked atrocities unmatched in Europe since World War II, leaving an estimated 200,000 people dead.
"If the war in the Balkans is reignited," Christopher said, "it could spark a wider conflict like those that drew American soldiers to Europe in huge numbers twice in this century."
Republican proposals cut too deep, poll says
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Fifty-one percent of Americans think the Republicans' proposals to cut spending go too far, and Medicare is the main worry, an Associated Press poll found.
The poll also found that Americans overwhelmingly doubt the GOP will deliver a tax cut. In fact, 55 percent of Americans think their family's taxes will increase next year because of the decisions made in Washington.
A tax cut of $245 billion in seven years is a central promise of the budget-balancing plans approved by the House and Senate last week.
The poll, taken Friday through Tuesday, asked 1,008 Americans
which programs they were particularly worried about being cut. Medicare was the most frequent answer, especially among women.
Republican leaders insist they are not cutting Medicare, but they are holding down its growth to prevent it from running out of money.
Thirty percent of those polled said the spending reductions did not go far enough, and 7 percent said they were about right.
Overall, 41 percent put more trust in Clinton than the Republicans to make the decisions balancing the budget.
Thirty-six percent put more trust in the Republicans. Eighteen percent didn't trust either side.
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