County bus hijacked near Broward airport after 5 a.m. shootout with law enforcement
Broward Sheriff’s detectives were looking Friday for a county para-transit bus and the man involved in hijacking it earlier in the day after a gunfight with deputies.
The shooting happened shortly before 5 a.m. in the 1400 block of Perimeter Road, said BSO spokeswoman Claudinne Caro.
The sheriff’s office did not release details of the shooting by a deputy, but Miami Herald news partner CBS Miami took an aerial image of a Mercedes-Benz sedan riddled with bullet holes on the driver’s side windshield.
One of the people involved in the gunfight then hijacked the bus, removing the driver and then driving it away, Caro said in a statement. There were no passengers on the shuttle, according to the sheriff’s office.
The shooting and search for the hijacker prompted authorities to close several roads near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Airport., shutdowns that lasted until noon, the airport said in a statement on Twitter.
Later in the afternoon, BSO said the suspect got away on the bus.
Detectives were searching for Leandro Fernandez Sanchez, 33, and the 2019 Collins bus, which is part of the county’s TOPS paratransit program.
The vehicle is designated bus number 309. The license plate number is T10261.
Deputies advised people not to approach Sanchez but instead to alert authorities.
Anyone with information about the bus is asked to contact Broward Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS (8477) on online at browardcrimestoppers.org.
“Deputies are actively searching for the hijacker. At this time, the circumstances of the shooting are under active investigation. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is on scene and will investigate the shooting,” Caro said.