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WASHINGTON (AP) — A man accused of hijacking a bus and then striking and killing a pedestrian as he drove had smoked synthetic marijuana and PCP before the incident, court documents released Wednesday said.
Keith Loving of Washington made his first appearance in court Wednesday and was ordered held without bond. The 30-year-old Loving is charged with second-degree murder.
A court document says Loving got on the bus Tuesday around 10:30 a.m. in northeast Washington and about a minute later lunged at the bus driver with a pair of needle-nosed pliers. The court document says the bus driver was able to take the pliers away but was pushed off the bus by Loving. The document says all four passengers fled the bus before Loving drove off.
Loving drove erratically, striking another bus that was transporting senior citizens and driving into oncoming traffic, the court document says. He then pulled into a gas station, driving the bus between two gas pumps, where he stopped. Then, in an apparent effort to leave the gas station, he pulled forward, hitting a man who was putting trash in a dumpster, the document says. The man who was struck, identified as 40-year-old Anthony C. Payne of Washington, later died. He was pinned under the front of the bus and both of his legs were crushed, causing him to lose a "massive amount of blood," the document said.
Loving stayed in the driver's seat of the bus for more than 10 minutes until police arrived but refused to respond to verbal commands and resisted officers who had to use pepper spray to subdue him, the document said. He was taken to a hospital where a police officer overheard him tell the hospital staff that he had smoked PCP and K-2, synthetic marijuana, before the incident.
During Loving's court appearance Wednesday, prosecutor Edward O'Connell said Loving's attack on the bus driver was "unprovoked" and called his behavior "insane."
Loving's attorney, David Maxted, called Payne's death "an accident." Loving himself spoke out in court several times even after he was warned by a judge not to. When he was ordered held without bond he said: "I can't go home?"
He is scheduled to return to court on May 26 for a preliminary hearing.
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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jessicagresko . Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jessica-gresko.
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