A former Army trainee who tried to escape boot camp by hijacking a school bus full of kids has tried to escape custody twice since his arrest, authorities said Thursday.
Jovan Collazo, 23, who’s facing two dozen charges for holding a bus driver at gunpoint as 18 kids sat as passengers, tried to escape from a jail and hospital, WIS News reported.
In his botched attempt at escaping jail, authorities said he decked a guard in the face and ended up with a broken ankle.
But Collazo’s public defender said his client was cuffed the whole time.
“The incident being referred to as an attempted escape by Mr. Collazo occurred while he was on suicide watch, completely naked, and handcuffed behind his back,” the public defender told the station.
Collazzo is now likely to face additional charges in addition to two dozen charges including kidnapping charges for taking the bus.
On May 6, Collazo left Fort Jackson on May 6 with an Army-issued M4 rifle and tried to flag down traffic on Interstate 77 before he got on the bus at a stop picking up children, WYFF reported.
Collazo pointed his gun at driver Kenneth Corbin and appeared to shout at him to drive, footage showed, but he cut short his ride after just six minutes because of nagging questions from the kids.
“In the end I think we’re on the road about four miles and he just got frustrated with the questions and just told me to stop the bus and get off,” Corbin told “Good Morning America” in a recent interview.
The kids, some as young as kindergarten, asked Colazzo if he was a soldier to which he replied, “Yes, I’m a soldier,” according to Corbin.
They asked if he planned to hurt them or the bus driver and why he was doing this.
“From that point, seemed like he sensed more questions coming,” Corbin said.
“And he seemed like I guess something clicked on his mind and said ‘enough enough already and he just told me to stop the bus.”
Army officials later told The Associated Press there was no ammo in his gun at the time.
With Post wires.
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