Crime & Safety
Detainee Crashes Corrections Dept. Bus In Brooklyn: Spokesperson
A Rikers Island detainee hopped in the driver's seat of an unattended corrections bus and slammed into several cars, according to a report.
BROOKLYN, NY — A Rikers Island detainee took over a Corrections department bus on Tuesday and smashed it into another car in a chaotic scene that landed one officer on suspension, according to the department and a report.
A person in custody was waiting outside the Brooklyn's Supreme Court aboard a Corrections bus when an officer left the bus unattended at about 12 p.m., officials said.
One detainee was able hop in the driver's seat of the bus and took control of the vehicle, according to officials and reports.
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Corrections Department officials could not confirm if a second officer had also left the bus full of detainees unattended.
The aspiring joyrider was Tiequan Ward, 38, a man being held in a high-security unit on Rikers Island in connection to a 2010 Brooklyn murder, according to a report obtained by the Daily News.
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The runaway driver didn't make it too far — he threw the bus in reverse and immediately smashed into another vehicle, damaging at least one parked car, a representative of the Corrections department told Patch.
Nine fellow detainees were also on the bus at the time and while there were no serious injuries among the detainees, authorities were still determining whether there were minor injuries, according to a representative of the department.
No pedestrians were injured, according to the department.
Two corrections officers who were supposedly supervising the bus at the time of the crash were not injured, according to the Daily News.
One Corrections department officer was suspended for leaving the bus unattended, according to a Corrections department representative.
And Tuesday's chaos will delay a number of detainee's trials, according to the New York Daily News.
Ward was first convicted in 2019, but had the conviction reversed on an appeal, according to the Daily News.
He was re-arrested in 2019 to be prosecuted once again, the Daily News reported.
The city's Corrections department continued investigating the incident Wednesday.
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