Photo by Adam Gerard

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 30-year-old man after he hijacked a Metrobus and killed a pedestrian yesterday. Keith James Loving, of Northeast, is being charged with second-degree murder, according to D.C. Police.

MPD responded to a call for the stolen U6 Metrobus at around 10:40 a.m. in the 4200 block of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE, according to a release. At the scene, they found an unconscious, 40-year-old Anthony Payne who was hit by the vehicle. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

“The suspect appeared to be very violent and resistant,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said, The Washington Post reported. Lanier said that Loving fought as he was being arrested. “It’s a bizarre incident,” she added.

Police also described the events leading up to the fatal strike, which occurred at a Crown Gas station, according to The Post:

Lanier said the assailant boarded the bus in the 3800 block of Jay Street NE as it was on its way to Lincoln Heights. The man stood next to the driver, who asked him, “Do you want to take a seat?” Lanier recounted in an interview. “He was just standing there staring.”

At the next stop, at Kenilworth Terrace, the man attacked the driver. He did not use the pliers-like device in the assault, Lanier said. A police spokesman said the driver was not seriously injured.

The driver hit his emergency call button — which notifies Metro’s control center, triggers GPS tracking of the bus, and notifies police — and then he, too, escaped. Lanier said the suspect then “shut the door, hopped in the seat and drove away.”

The man drove to Minnesota Avenue, where he headed north for several blocks before jumping a curb and going across the parking lot of a Crown gas station near Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue…. Police said the bus jumped a second curb and hit Payne as he walked across the parking lot.

The case remains under investigation.