The suspect accused of fatally shooting a subway rider during a bus hijacking in South Los Angeles has been charged with a dozen crimes and faces up to 90 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The family of the man killed during last week’s incident honored his memory over the weekend and called for improvements to the system to protect passengers.
Anthony Rivera, 48, was driving home from his night shift as a parking attendant at Dodger Stadium when a man with a gun boarded the bus about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday and shot him.
The alleged gunman, 51-year-old Lamont Campbell, held the bus driver, Rivera and another passenger hostage for more than an hour, according to authorities. Police chased the bus throughout the city before a SWAT team swooped on it and arrested Campbell. There were no other serious injuries.
On Sunday, friends and family met at a park in Rosemead to honor Rivera.
Marylou Mulero, Rivera’s cousin, told news station KTTV-TV, “We demand more protection for the passengers on those buses because what happened to them was an incident that should have been prevented.” He said he was a “great guy, and he didn’t deserve to go the way he did.”
Campbell was charged Monday with 12 counts, including murder, carjacking, kidnapping during a carjacking, assault with a semiautomatic handgun, attempted murder and robbery.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said during a news conference Monday that Campbell had an extensive criminal record. Gascón condemned the violence on the region’s public transportation system.
“The actions of a few should never threaten the safety of the thousands of people who will depend on this essential service,” Gascón said before directing his comments to the general public who use public transportation. “I know you may be experiencing increased fear as a result of the numerous reports regarding violence in the metro. Know that I see you, I hear you, and I will do everything I can to ensure your safety.”
According to authorities, if Campbell is convicted of his crimes, he faces up to 90 years in prison.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn said that if Campbell “is found guilty, he will spend the rest of his life in prison for the pain and suffering he caused.”
Hahn, who is also chairman of the Metro board, said, “Campbell’s hijacking of a Metro bus and murder of a commuter trying to get home from work shocked the city.”
Authorities expressed their condolences to Rivera’s family and commended the bus driver, Dennis Contreras, who drove away at gunpoint until police managed to disable the vehicle and arrest Campbell.
The official motive behind the hijacking has not been revealed, but Gascón confirmed that Campbell was on the bus for 13 minutes before shooting Rivera and hijacking the bus.
Police sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation said Rivera was killed during an attempted robbery.
At the beginning of the hijacking, 911 dispatchers were flooded with calls because the bus driver activated a panic button, alerting police and triggering emergency messages on the exterior of the bus. The bus had recently been equipped with a barrier, allowing the driver to maintain control of the vehicle, a safety measure that officials said likely helped prevent further tragedy. Such barriers are expected to be installed on all metro buses by the end of the year.
City leaders acknowledged the hijacking as an example of the challenges of keeping passengers safe amid a series of violent incidents on Los Angeles’ public transit systems. Just four months earlier, Mayor Karen Bass had called for increased security on transit lines after violent clashes.
Bass acknowledged the kidnapping at a news conference last week, saying the city would look for new ways to detect weapons and protect both riders and drivers on public transportation.
“I want to say clearly that what happened… will not be tolerated. This has no place in Los Angeles and the individual who was arrested must be held fully accountable,” Bass said.
At an event honoring Rivera on Sunday, some of his family wore Dodgers jerseys and others wore black T-shirts bearing a photo of him standing next to his mother, Teresa Flores, in her high school ROTC uniform.
“I say, ‘Why, God, why?'” Flores said, surrounded by his family. News station KABC-TV reported,
“I just miss her so much,” he said. “There’s so much I want to say and I can’t. I was shocked that they took my son away. …He will always be with me, he is my heart.”
Family members said Rivera was headed home after working at Dodger Stadium.
“He just wanted to get home safe, but he never got home,” Rivera’s cousin Sarah Beck told the news station. The family has made a start Online fundraising to help pay funeral expenses,
Elizabeth Mulero, 58, is 10 years older than her cousin and remembers when he came home from the hospital as a newborn.
“The first day he came home I held him, I fed him,” Mulero told The Times. “I just miss him so much.”
He described Rivera’s growth into a big boy and a grown man; She described him as a “teddy bear”. Rivera, he said, was cordial and always apologized to his family for slamming the door. She loved singing karaoke and watching comic book movies and the Dodgers. Although he was not a huge sports fan, he was proud when he got a job as a parking attendant, as his entire family is Dodgers fans.
He was also human and “got involved with bad people in their bad ways,” Mulero said. He was most recently living in a halfway house.
Over the years, his family gave him an ultimatum: either calm down or lose his family.
“He overcame a lot of adversity to get to where he was,” Mulero said.
Over the past two years, Rivera got clean and spent more time with his mother. She bought him a walker and an electric scooter. They would watch comedies together and gossip about the actors as if they were all friends.
Rivera was married several times but had no children. Growing up an only child, Mulero said, he always wanted to be a father.
“He left this earth still wanting a child,” his cousin said, crying. “He deserved to have someone who loved him unconditionally, and he never got that. So, I’m glad he’s in a place where he knows he was loved and he won’t have to deal with any of those negative things anymore. He is at peace and he is with God.”
Campbell, the alleged kidnapper, is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
