Danielle Husband
Riding on public transit can cause anyone headaches.
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But passengers on a METRO bus took an unusual commute Wednesday afternoon after, according to police, a man made terroristic threats.
Arrested for the incident, Wayne Darrel Dalcourt faces charges of making a terroristic threat and interruption of public transportation.
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He is also banned from METRO for one year.
Witnesses described the scene, saying it began with Dalcourt yelling at a woman through a cellphone, escalating to threats to blow up the bus.
“I don’t know what his problem was, but he was making accusations about going to beat up some woman. And, then, he turns around, he starts saying something about he was going to blow something up,” fellow passenger Admiral Lemon said in an interview.
Additional witnesses say they were nervous when Dalcourt threatened to blow up the bus because he was carrying a book bag.
“With all the things that’s going on, like with Las Vegas, you just can’t take nothing for granted,” Comeaux said in an interview with ABC13 Eyewitness News. “He had a book bag. I didn’t know if he had a bomb or not. So, yeah, it made us nervous.”
The bus driver immediately pulled over in the 5200 block of Airline Drive near E. Burress Street.
Passengers said the driver got off the bus during the incident; after she exited the bus to call for help, Dalcourt jumped into her driver’s seat.
“He actually got in the driver’s seat twice,” passenger Dorese Simmons said in an interview, “…and we didn’t know if he was going to take off on the bus or what with all of us in there.”
Despite his efforts, the bus was remotely disabled by METRO.
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The transit authority is now investigating the incident and will make a determination about how the driver reacted.
This is not Dalcourt’s first mark on his rap sheet, being arrested 19 times over the past 12 years, according to police records.
