SAN ANTONIO – An hours-long standoff concluded after a 32-year-old man accused of stabbing a woman on a bus traveling from out of town barricaded himself for hours, prompting negotiators to step in, San Antonio police say.
Police said a Greyhound bus coming from Dallas stopped in downtown San Antonio in the 300 block of East Travis Street around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Two passengers got off the bus and found San Antonio Park Police officers at Travis Park and told them a man on the bus had a knife, police said.
The suspect, who has not been identified, had stabbed the 36-year-old woman in the neck as they were traveling on Highway 281, police said.
SAPD said when the officers got on the bus, they saw the injured woman and began evacuating passengers. They were able to get the victim to emergency medical services personnel for treatment while the man remained aboard the bus.
The officers tried to de-escalate the situation. However, police said the officers got off the bus and waited for hostage negotiators to arrive when their attempts were unsuccessful while the man was still on the bus.
Police used beanbag rounds to attempt to get the suspect to drop his knife as he held it against his neck, officials say.
Negotiators tried for hours to get the man to give up. They used messages in Spanish and English to try to convince the man for about two-and-a-half hours, police said.
The stabbing suspect eventually gave up and was taken into custody after officers used a crowbar-like tool to smash the bus’s windows to see into it and assess his medical condition since officers had used the beanbag rounds, SAPD said.
Police say an argument led to the stabbing on the bus, according to witnesses. However, they were interviewing the 30 passengers on the bus to get more information.
The stabbing victim was in stable condition and taken to University Hospital for treatment. The suspect has a self-inflicted knife wound and was taken to a hospital for treatment.
No other injuries were reported.
The man faces a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, police said.