Witnesses recall tense moments during Gwinnett County bus hijacking, high-speed chase

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Johnny Gilbert was terrified when his wife Paulette was held hostage on a hijacked Gwinnett County transit bus by a man armed with a gun.

“I lost contact with her for about 50 minutes, so I had no idea what was going on,” Gilbert said. “Stunned. This is the last thing you would expect that somebody would get on a bus and there was a shooting on a local bus. It didn’t make any sense. It’s almost like a disbelief. You don’t realize. This really did happen.”

Gilbert said his wife made it off the bus alive and said she was instructed by police not to discuss the incident publicly.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Bus hijacking suspect witnessed Peachtree Center shooting in Atlanta, was interviewed by reporters

“I have no idea what is going to happen next but I’m just glad that she’s alright,” Gilbert said.

Atlanta News First also spoke with Jeremy Gamet, a driver, who narrowly avoided the speeding bus that was swerving in and out of traffic on Hugh Howell Road in DeKalb County.

“It looked like it was going to come towards us, so I pulled forward and this big cloud of debris happened and then police just started passing us and it felt like forever. I’ve never seen so many police ever,” Gamet said.

Gamet’s white car could be seen from the First Alert Chopper above. He said he witnessed passengers on the bus pleading for help by banging on the windows.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Everything we know about the deadly Gwinnett County bus hijacking

“We saw people inside of the bus and the first thing I thought was oh my God those people and the way the bus was swerving I thought the bus was going to fall over or someone is going to get hit,” Gamet said.

Seconds after turning on Hugh Howell Road, he said the bus swerved across the median into oncoming traffic.

“We started to go the other way and I realized the car on the other side of the median had just gotten destroyed. There was a lady standing outside of it and a gentleman inside of it and I was amazed that there wasn’t more destruction because the bus was going so fast,” Gamet said.