COLUMBIA, S.C. — The U.S. Army apologized after a trainee left Fort Jackson and hijacked a school bus with 18 elementary school students on board Thursday morning.
None of the students was injured, and neither was the school bus driver, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said.
That didn't stop the Army for taking responsibility for the incident.
"This was a failure in our accountability procedures that we truly regret and are apologetic to our community," Fort Jackson spokeswoman LA Sully said in a news release. "We are thankful for the fast actions of RCSD and the local community to assist in the apprehension of the individual."
The trainee, whose name has not been publicly released, ran away from his unit Thursday morning with his Army-issued rifle, according to the release.
Fort Jackson Commander Brig. Gen. Milford Beagle said the trainee is a 23-year-old from New Jersey.
Because he was in his third week of training, the soldier's weapon, an M4 carbine, did not have any ammunition because neither live rounds nor blanks are issued at that stage, according to Beagle.
Beagle said that does not lessen the severity of the trainee's actions, because there's no way for anyone to know the gun didn't have bullets.
It was during personal hygiene time in the morning that the trainee left the Army instillation.
After finding a weak point in Fort Jackson's perimeter fence and jumping it, the trainee dressed in a physical training uniform tried to flag down cars on nearby Interstate 77, Beagle said. The trainee then headed to Percival Road where he saw a bus picking up children at a bus stop, Lott said.
The trainee had the rifle when he got on the bus headed for Forest Lake Elementary School in the Richland 2 district.
The trainee told the driver he didn't want to hurt anybody and wanted to be taken to the next town, according to Lott. Beagle said he believes the trainee did not intend to hurt anyone, he just wanted to go back home.
"There is nothing that leads us to believe through his counseling, through anything in his screening records coming in that this had anything to do with harming others, harming himself, or anything that links to any other type nefarious activity," Beagle said. "Three weeks in, we do experience several soldiers that over the course of their initial stages just have that desire, that anxiety due to separation from their families to get home. We think that was truly ... his intent and nothing beyond that."
Once Fort Jackson leaders were aware of the hijacking, they worked with the sheriff's department, Sully said.
Beagle estimated the trainee was reported missing about 30 minutes after he left, saying an "immediate pursuit" ensued.
In addition to helping law enforcement with the search, Beagle said all training at Fort Jackson was briefly suspended in the morning in an effort to account for all weapons.
"I do want to express great deal of sympathy to those parents, to the bus driver, to our community," Beagle said. "This is something that was a failure with regard to me, and my role in terms of our accountability procedures and processes. For me, this was a key failure ... that I will fix going forward. The outcome, potentially, could have been much worse. We are thankful, very grateful, that it was not. But that leads me to what procedures to change here in the future so we don't have an incident of this nature."
The trainee is facing multiple counts of kidnapping and other charges, according to Lott.
Additionally, the Army is expected to take action against the trainee. That could include expelling him for going AWOL, as well as punishment for being absent without leave, theft of a weapon, and other things, according to Beagle.
