November 2, 1995
Web posted at: 6:50 p.m. EST
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A man claiming to be armed with a bomb hijacked a school bus Thursday and led police on a low- speed chase to Miami Beach, where he was shot and killed.
The 11 fifth- and sixth-graders still on the bus escaped serious injury as did the woman driver, who was hailed as a hero by school officials.
The bus rammed a police cruiser on an expressway in the early stages of the chase and later hit a marked Dade County school district car before the chase ended in gunfire.
There was no bomb, but police, aware of the hijacker's threat to blow up the bus, quickly dragged him away from the bus into a nearby alley.
Police said the hijacker had just quit his job at Joe's Stone Crab restaurant and was demanding a conference with the Internal Revenue Service in a dispute involving thousands of dollars in what the IRS was calling unpaid taxes.
Police identified the man as Catalino Nick Sang, 42, a native of the Dominican Republic who was of Chinese descent. His immigration records indicate he legally entered the United States on March 28, 1984, as a Chinese specialty cook.
He forced a woman and two children onto the bus at a bus stop just outside Miami city limits in South Dade County, police said, and commandeered the bus by threatening to blow it up.
An anonymous caller reported the hijacking to police and a low-speed chase involving Metro-Dade and Florida State Patrol cruisers followed.
The bus stopped three times during the chase, once so the driver could ask police to provide the hijacker with a cellular phone. A Florida State trooper threw a cell phone into the bus at an exit off the highway. A subsequent video recording showed the man talking on the phone.
At another stop, a woman and two children got off the bus and climbed into a nearby police car.
The final stop was outside the Miami Beach restaurant where the hijacker had worked. The man was shot to death there, apparently while trying to get off the bus.
A police source told CNN the man was shot in the doorway of the bus before it stopped in front of Joe's Stone Crab restaurant and then again after it stopped as he tried to get off.
Witnesses told reporters at the scene three shots were fired as the man was getting off the bus.
"When he came off the bus, words were pretty much exchanged, stuff like that ... and the (police), just right there, shot him. Boom," one witness said. "We didn't really see much of it, but (there was) commotion."
Detective Juan del Castillo said police ordered the man to get off the bus. "He didn't comply and that's when we shot him," del Castillo said.
After the shooting, the hijacker was dragged into a nearby alley. His body was later seen covered with a tarp.
Sgt. Ralph Fernandez said the man had threatened to blow up the bus. He said a device -- "some sort of canister" -- was found on the bus, but that it was not a bomb.
None of the children was seriously hurt, although at least three suffered minor injuries. Officials at Mount Sinai Hospital said one child, a 7-year-old autistic boy, was treated for lacerations of the face and right arm caused by flying glass.
Del Castillo said the man got on the bus at an intersection on Miami's south side at 8:26 a.m. He threatened the driver with a bag that contained the canister and ordered her to drive.
The bus could been seen moving slowly down a Miami expressway surrounded by police cruisers. The woman driver sat calmly at the steering wheel and the hijacker sat next to a child several seats behind her.
The bus drove through Miami Beach, stopping at Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant. One child was allowed to get off the bus. Then the bus began moving again.
The police Special Response Team could be seen moving in. Shots were fired and police dragged the suspect from the bus. The children were then taken out of the bus through the rear emergency exit.
The bus was carrying students to Blue Lakes Elementary School. "The bus driver frankly was a hero," said school superintendent Octavio Visiedo. "She never panicked. She did an excellent job." (112K AIFF sound or 112K WAV sound)
Joanne Sterns, the school principal, said five of the children were in the special education program. She said, "I understand that the bus had stopped at a railroad crossing when a gentlemen hopped on the bus. He had had trouble with the IRS and was trying to use the children to get what he wanted."
She said the parents of the students on the bus were at the school and were aware that the incident was over and that none of the students were injured.
After the incident was over, the children were taken into Joe's Stone Crab and given ice cream. School officials said some were quiet but all seemed all right.
A school bus later picked up the students and took them back to their elementary school.
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