A terrified CTA bus driver was forced to make a desperate leap for her life out a window after an armed passenger hijacked the vehicle at gunpoint on Chicago’s Southwest Side, stunning surveillance footage reveals.
The chaos erupted just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, on the 5400 block of South Pulaski Avenue, according to Chicago police. Quentin Lewis, 36, of Chicago, pulled out a gun while riding the bus and demanded the 35-year-old female driver not stop, or, in some accounts, to stop, sparking a terrifying confrontation captured on the bus’s onboard cameras.
Dramatic footage circulating online shows the frantic scene inside the bus: a woman in a light-blue CTA uniform scrambling in the driver’s seat, while a man in minimal clothing struggles near the door area amid the pandemonium. The driver, fearing for her life with only a protective partition between her and the gunman, climbed out the side window to escape the moving vehicle. No injuries were officially reported by police, though social media posts claimed she may have broken a leg in the daring getaway.
After the driver fled, Lewis himself abandoned the bus, ran to a nearby unoccupied vehicle left running, jumped in, and sped off, cops said. Officers quickly tracked him down and took him into custody. A firearm was recovered at the scene.
Lewis now faces a slate of felony charges, including armed kidnapping, possession of a stolen vehicle, aggravated unlawful restraint, and possession of a weapon as a felon. He appeared in court Thursday and was ordered detained pending further proceedings.
This marks the second armed hijacking of a CTA bus in recent months. In May, a knife-wielding passenger forced a 57-year-old female driver off her route for miles before she also escaped through a window; that suspect was later charged with kidnapping.
CTA officials and police have not released additional details about other passengers on board or the exact sequence of events beyond the basic timeline. The viral video, first shared widely on X, has drawn millions of views, with viewers calling the incident “terrifying” and praising the driver’s quick thinking.
No motive has been disclosed for Lewis’s actions. Chicago police continue to investigate.
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