Daily Mail
January 24, 2014
Police say Maquel Donyel Morris, 25, was ‘very high’ when he assaulted the driver before 2am near Tonopah and nearly caused the bus to swerve into oncoming traffic on Interstate 10 as he screamed, ‘I’m gonna flip this bus!’
Three of the 41 passengers had to be airlifted from the scene after Morris very nearly accomplished his goal before running off into the desert with his girlfriend only to return 30 minutes later.
That’s when Arizona authorities placed him under arrest.
‘He was hallucinating … we believe he was very high,’ Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves told the LA Times.
According to Graves, Morris’s girlfriend informed police Graves was under the influence of methamphetamine.
Despite all his efforts, the bus remained upright and none of the 24 people taken to hospitals had life-threatening injuries, the DPS said.
Passengers say that’s thanks in large part to the efforts of the as yet unnamed driver, who at no point in the terrifying ordeal took his hands off the steering wheel.
While he was being pummeled, the driver called for passengers to ‘get this guy off me,’ passenger Gregory Forte told KNXV.
‘The passengers descended on him,’ DPS spokesman Bart Graves told The Associated Press.
The injuries included a broken sternum suffered by one of the passengers who helped restrain the attacker, said DPS Officer Carrick Cook, another DPS spokesman.
The attacker and his female companion got off the bus when it stopped and fled into the desert wilds 50 miles outside Phoenix.
Thirty minutes later, the couple returned for unknown reasons and the suspect was arrested by highway patrol.
The girlfriend told azfamily.com that he was ‘paranoid’ and ‘did not want to be on the bus.’
As he was hauled away in a police car, Morris continued his frightening behavior.
‘They’re going to kill me,’ he screamed from the back of the car to his girlfriend. ‘Call my mom!’
Morris was taken to a hospital for treatment of a drug-induced condition and was expected to be booked on suspicion of numerous counts of endangerment, assault and aggravated assault, the DPS said.