Authorities identify knife-wielding Greyhound bus passenger who was fatally shot by Atlanta police

By The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities identified the Florida-bound Greyhound bus passenger who was shot and killed by police after running onto an Atlanta freeway with a knife as a 39-year-old man from Maryland.

The shooting happened after 1:00 a.m. Thursday on Interstate 75 south of downtown Atlanta. The bus had pulled over because a passenger was stabbed. After police arrived in response to a call reporting that someone on a Greyhound bus was stabbed, Robert McVay got off and tried to run away.

Officers tried to disarm McVay and used stun guns and pepper spray during the chase. McVay ignored the officers’ verbal commands and continued to flee through moving lines of trucks and cars on the interstate, police said.

McVay ignored orders to drop his knife, Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a Thursday briefing. He then “moved towards officers aggressively,” police said in a statement. Five officers opened fire, and the man later died at Grady Memorial Hospital.

The passenger who was stabbed continued to travel to Florida with non-life-threatening injuries.