San Diego

Man Charged With Hijacking San Diego Airport Shuttle to Stand Trial

Video played in court showed the suspect taking passengers on what one man testified was a terrifying ride.

A man accused of posing as a passenger and stealing an employee shuttle filled with workers at the San Diego International Airport will stand trial.

Norberto Eaton, 46, of Arizona, faces kidnapping and false imprisonment with violence charges after he commandeered an airport employee shuttle bus on April 19.

Video played in court Tuesday showed Eaton taking passengers on what one man testified was a terrifying ride. 

In a split-screen video showing the front of the shuttle on one side and passengers on the other, you can Eaton jump up from the back of the shuttle, hop in the driver’s seat and speed off from Terminal 2 at Lindbergh Field with the door open.

A woman in the front seat with a cane can be seen looking for something to hold onto so she won’t fall as she and others are tossed around.

“The rate of speed was excessive,” testified Randal Snyder during Eaton’s preliminary hearing Tuesday. “I was thrown up against the window which I thought was odd. I became concerned. I started looking for my seat belt.”

Investigators say that at one point, Eaton was racing 55 miles per hour down a 25 miles per hour zone on Harbor Drive.

Video shows Eaton going around stopped cars and blowing through a red light near the U.S. Coast Guard station.

One officer who testified about the April hijacking said the accident could have been catastrophic.

In the video, Eaton can be seen motioning to the passengers.

A Harbor Police officer testified he told them, "everything will be fine."

During the ordeal, which lasted more than two minutes, Snyder, one of the two men on board the shuttle, testified that he and the other man looked at each other and decided they were going to do something.

When the shuttle hit traffic near Hawthorne and came to a stop, they jumped the driver and grabbed him.

Snyder says Eaton escaped, but he and the other man were able to shout down a parking enforcement officer, who arrested Eaton.

Snyder explained why he felt compelled to help.

“I started sizing up the situation and noticed we probably had just been hijacked or kidnapped. But I was really concerned at this point in time because I thought this was probably more of terrorist activity than anything else," he said. "I was concerned about my safety as well as everyone else.”

Snyder says he broke a finger trying to grab Eaton. No one else was hurt.

Harbor Police say a bomb sniffing dog didn’t detect anything suspicious.

Eaton is scheduled to make his next court appearance on October 19, 2016.

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