Bus hijacker Soldier to be chaptered out of the Army
Jovan Callazo hijacks school bus. (Richland County Sheriff’s Office)
Jovan Collazo was found not guilty of charges related to kidnapping via hijacking a school bus. He was found not guilty due to insanity. The Army began the process to chapter him out of the military. Collazo had jumped a barbed wire fence to exit Fort Jackson and subsequently took over a bus. He also attempted to escape the detention/jail facility he was brought to for this incident.
From Fox News:
“Fort Jackson leaders are aware of Pvt. Collazo’s case verdict and that he has been ordered to a mental health facility in South Carolina,” Fort Jackson spokeswoman LA Sully said Thursday. “Considering this outcome, the Army is updating his status and will complete all relevant administrative processes including separating him from the Army.”
The move had been expected since early in the investigation. In May 2021, Collazo was accused of jumping over a barbed wire fence at Fort Jackson with an unloaded M-4 rifle and brandishing it while hijacking the bus.
Collazo was three weeks into basic combat training at the time.
He snuck away through the woods and found the school bus packed with kids, according to authorities, in an alleged attempt to return home to New Jersey while suffering from “anxiety.” The sheriff’s office later released surveillance video showing parts of the incident.
Panicked elementary school students pulled out their cellphones and contacted their parents, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at the time. Collazo purportedly told the driver he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but eventually grew frustrated with the kids’ questions and let them off.
Eighteen students and the driver got out of the vehicle. Collazo drove a little longer, ditched the gun, left the bus, and Richland County deputies arrested him.
Fox News has the article here.
Some recruiter was mining high grade stupid the day this one signed up.
Aw, they’d have straightened out his mental issues at AIT before he went to his unit… /sarc
Said Recruiter must have been ass-out desperate to make quota for the month when he was let in!
Former Recruiter here. Back in 77 my station got a new recruiter. Because he was a E7 and we were junior (me an E5 serving with 2 E6’s) he became the station commander. In his first quarter he had a mission of 1 and the rest of us had 3 each. Last month of the quarter he was still at 0 and we were at 3 and myself 4 (I had a rural area w/4 high schools. In came a walk-in and the station cdr met him at the door. The young man wanted to enlist and was ready to ship.
Helped station cdr do the paperwork and found out the walk-in was from my area. He got a worried look and I told him he’s your walk-in. Took the station cdr to the small town police station for the police check. The chief met us at the counter, looked at the name on the DD 369, looked at both us and walked to the file cabinet, pulled out an inch thick folder, looked at 369 and folder label again, then dropped folder in trash and wrote no record, signed it, and said “Maybe the Army will do him some good”
Station Cdr got the “Scheiße!” look and then the chief started laughing and pulled out the folder full of blank forms. The walk-in was his nephew and had no record.
That would be called hazing, today. If Aunt Samantha wanted you to have a sense of humor, zher would have recast you as a woman in Ghostbusters.
The recruiter promised him a school bus but it wasn’t in his contract.
Dollars to donuts this guy DEPped in after the 28th of the month and shipped within a week.
Wonder how long before he will show back up here on a Stolen Valor Thread. “…heroic trainee saves kidnapped students from crazed bus driver…”
As long as he’s not able to get better and re-enlist like Beau Bergdahl did…
“He served with honor and distinction”
-Susan Rice
Let he who has never jumped the fence in Basic Training and taken a bus load of kids hostage toss the first grenade.
Point taken.
Also, we should be grateful he didn’t have the keys to an Abrams.
Well, let me relate some crazy/stupid of what happened in close proximity to my person. 1976, my first assignment to the 4th Imperial Dragoons, a M109 SP How was driven out the motor pool and drove north on I25 to “repel the invaders”; my 2nd assignment to FRG, Sullivan Barracks, Manheim, a M60A1 was driven out of the next-door units (3/68 Ar) cruised around Manheim for a bit knocking the crap out of Hermen the German’s best shit then drove the tank off the bridge; which brings us to Sept 1993, the day before the scheduled delivery of my #2 son, a shitbird took it upon his self to drive a M1 from the assembly area where we were conducting gunnery training. Ran the tank hard (wide open throttle) got to main post shut down the engine without the required cool down. Basically destroyed the powerpack. I got lucky the Bn CSM had me brought back from downrange that late afternoon. Then we have the M60A3 from San Diego in ’96 ( I was in Orange County)
Abrams have a key start?
*Pulls pin*
I tried that at MCRD San Diego, but do you know how hard it is to chase down and jump aboard a fucking passenger jet?
I know of at least one kid that did it. They found him frozen solid to the nose wheel when it landed.
In an unrelated incident, Collazo was reportedly a first-time go at the obstacle course and was also offered a walk-in slot at SERE school.
EEAK
Escape
Evasion
Armed
Kidnapping
Separate him? How about we Article 32 him and get him a bus trip to Leavenworth?
He should have at least been Court martialed and thrown out with a Big Chicken Dinner at a bare minimum IMO, but my bet is that his CoC thought he wasn’t worth the money and time to do that.
2 fucking years to get this guy shitcanned?
This dude will soon being collecting a 100% VA disability check monthly for catching the PTSD. Bets…?