Sierra Times
by Becky Akers

07/29/05

"Picture this: you and your family are vacationing in the Big Apple. You're riding one of those double-decker busses and enjoying the circus that's Broadway. Suddenly, in a scene borrowed from a banana republic, troops waving rifles ambush the vehicle. 'Hands up!' they shout while your family shrieks, your heart thuds, and the other passengers begin screaming. ... Sixty terrorized tourists lived this nightmare near Times Square last Sunday when cops in riot gear invaded their bus. As one of them told the New York Post, 'I thought we were going to die.' It seems that when these folks had embarked on their tour a few hours earlier, five of them aroused suspicion among the bus company's employees [including] the driver, 43-year-old Mohammed Stout of the Bronx. You'd think a man living in the urban jungle wouldn't scare easily, but Mohammed insisted to the Daily News, 'I was definitely frightened from the beginning. That's human nature'...

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/07/29/194_105_124_70_58559.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp