A 32-year-old Dumfries, Virginia, man is charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct after an incident led a Covington-Harper Elementary School bus driver to run over him Tuesday afternoon, Prince William County police said.
The bus was stopped in the area of the 3100 block of Chesapeake Drive before 5 p.m. when a group of people got into an argument with the driver, police said. When the driver tried to close the door, Gione Deswayne Wise struck the door several times to force it open.
The bus driver drove away, but Wise held onto the door handle as the bus moved, police said. Once he let go, he fell to the ground and was struck in the legs by one of the bus tires.
A letter from school principal Ivania Sieiro to the parents of the students on the bus said the driver was a substitute who requested to see parents’ IDs at the bus stop before allowing the students to get off the bus.
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“Some parents became upset, and out of concern for the safety of the students, the driver closed the bus door and drove back to the school,” Sieiro wrote. “No students were harmed.”
The children were released to their parents or guardians without incident.
Wise was transported to an area hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and later charged.
