BUTTE – A 10-hour standoff with an armed man who hijacked a bus and held a man hostage in Butte ended on Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire.
The shootout happened at around 9:30 p.m. with the lone gunman finally coming out of a bus with his hands up.
The standoff began as a hostage situation inside a bus at the Butte Transfer Station at about 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday and continued into the evening.
The incident began on a Jefferson Lines bus that was traveling between Billings and Missoula when a man armed with a handgun ordered the bus to stop in Butte.
The man then ordered everyone except for one passenger out of the bus and the standoff began. Butte police say the man also claimed to have some kind of explosive device on the bus.
Heavily armed police officers took up defensive positions around the bus and the local SWAT team was also called to the scene.
The suspect held the passenger hostage for about three house until finally releasing him. When the hostage ran from the bus, police ordered him to the ground and searched him before removing him to safety.
The suspect in the standoff briefly appeared in the door of the bus and took a plastic bag that was left for him by officers.
Police continued to negotiate with the suspect into the night.
-John Emeigh reporting for MTN News
