Man hijacked a bus and forced driver ‘to drive downtown like a maniac,’ Iowa cops say

A 25-year-old man hijacked a city bus and forced the driver “to drive downtown like a maniac” — and right to a police station, police said, according to the Des Moines Register.

Abraham Ramirez got on a Des Moines Area Regional Transit bus at 11:55 p.m. Monday and told the driver to take him to a shelter, police said, according to KCCI.

The bus driver told Ramirez that the shelter wasn’t on his route, police said, so the man made a threat, WHO reported.

“Drive this thing or I’ll bust your head wide open,” Ramirez told the driver, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Des Moines Register.

“The driver decided to take him seriously and was headed (toward the shelter) when Ramirez told the driver he changed his mind and wanted to go to the police station,” KCCI reported.

Ramirez told the driver to speed and run red lights because people were chasing him, police said, according to WHO.

The driver followed the commands and drove at “excessive speeds” while running “multiple” stoplights through the downtown business district and right up to the police station, the Register reported.

Ramirez demanded that the driver honk the bus horn over and over again while outside the station, police said, according to the newspaper.

“The first cop to show up is dead,” Ramirez told the driver, according to KCCI.

When an officer did show up, Ramirez was arrested without incident, WHO reported. The man did not have any weapons with him.

Ramirez has since been charged with third-degree kidnapping, extortion, harassment and false imprisonment, according to the Polk County Jail inmate list.

Sgt. Paul Parizek said the bus driver did an “outstanding job of keeping his composure throughout an extremely tense and frightening incident,” according to the Register.