San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

Arrest in hijack of Muni bus, attack on driver

- By Danielle Echeverria Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle. echeverria@sfchronicl­e.com Twitter: @DanielleEc­hev

San Francisco police say they have arrested a man who assaulted a Muni bus driver, hijacked the vehicle and hit several cars while driving it in the Mission District on Friday night.

Police identified the suspect as Rickey Dancy, 36.

Just before 8 p.m. Friday, Dancy allegedly assaulted the Muni driver and commandeer­ed the vehicle at Cortland and Mission streets. From there, he drove more than a mile north to 19th and Guerrero streets, hitting several other cars along the way, said San Francisco police public informatio­n Officer Robert Rueca.

Officer Raj Vaswani tweeted Friday night that about 10 cars had been hit by the bus. There were no passengers aboard at the time.

Video of the incident obtained by KRON4 shows the empty Muni bus swerving in the middle of the street, crossing over into the opposite lane, and cutting off cars as it made wide right turns.

Delaney Rua, who was working at Delfina in the Mission on Friday night, said that from the restaurant she saw several sirens and six to eight police cars parked along 18th Street up to the intersecti­on with Guerrero, as well as two or three more blocking the intersecti­on from the Guerrero side.

The bus, she said, was parked diagonally across that intersecti­on with “EMERGENCY CALL POLICE 911” flashing on the display above the windshield that would normally identify the line.

Rueca said police took Dancy into custody after the bus was stopped. The officer did not provide any possible motive for the hijacking.

An ambulance responded to the scene to treat the bus driver and another motorist for what Rueca said appeared to be nonlife-threatenin­g injuries. The incident is under investigat­ion.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, there were no signs of damage at 19th and Guerrero, witnesses said.

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