Damir Igric
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Damir Igric (1972–October 3, 2001) was a Croat who on October 3, 2001, less than one month after the September 11 attacks, used a boxcutter to slash the throat of a Greyhound bus driver and then steered the vehicle into oncoming traffic in Tennessee, USA. The attack caused the deaths of six people, including himself.
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[edit] Early life
Igric was born in 1972 in what was then known as Yugoslavia in the city Slavonski Brod, Croatia. During his late teenage years he trained as a locksmith in vocational school. He joined the Yugoslav army in 1991, when he was 19, and was discharged in 1993,[1] after what the ambassador of Croatia Ivan Grdesic described as; "violent behavior and substance abuse.... he was connected with crimes in Croatia." When ethnic tensions began to flare during the mid nineties he joined others in Croatia's "homeland war" of independence from Yugoslavia.[2]
He signed up with The 108th Brigade which was made up of Muslim and Croat soldiers and is one of the military units whose soldiers were accused of murdering civilians and destroying Serb Orthodox churches and desecration of Serbian cemeteries.
[edit] Entry into the United States
Igric, a citizen of Croatia, had entered the United States, through the city of Miami Florida during March 1999. He entered on a 30 day transit visa and had overstayed his visa by over two years. [3]Igric convinced US immigration officials he had relatives in Florida and New York and was working in a restaurant in New York before deciding to attack.[1]
[edit] Attack
The Federal Bureau of Investigation established that Igric had boarded the Greyhound bus in Chicago. The bus was carrying 39 passengers at the time, and was travelling from Chicago to its final destination of Orlando, Florida. At 4 a.m. while the bus was travelling on Interstate 24 near Manchester, 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Nashville Tennessee, Igric lunged at the driver and slashed his throat, he proceeded to grab the steering wheel in an attempt to direct the vehicle into oncoming traffic.[3]
The driver, named Garfield Sands, from Marietta, Georgia, drove the route between Indianapolis and Atlanta. Sands was approached by Igric two to three times and asked how much longer until the next stop. The driver advised Igric that they would be making a stop in Manchester, and that he should go back to his seat. When Igric approached the driver for the last time, he did not say anything, but produced a sharp object and attempted to slash the driver's throat. Igric then grabbed the steering wheel causing the bus to crash. Sands managed to survive the attempted decapitation and the ensuing crash, his doctor was later able to describe his version of the attack;
He said that this fellow a couple of times, even after he made the announcement of when the next layover was, came up and asked him about routing and times, then the last time he came up again and this time without saying anything he just attacked him and cut his neck. Then he pushed the driver out of the way and took the wheel himself and drove it off the road.
A passenger named Carly Rinearson, was seated directly behind the driver, and encountered numerous contacts with Igric in the hours leading to the attack.
this guy approached me and asked me what time it was and then asked for my seat, When I refused he then went back to his seat at the back of the bus. Then an hour later he came up with a small knife or pocketknife and just reached around and slit the driver's throat.
The bus flipped over, with the driver's side on top, Igric was thrown through the windshield. Six other people were killed in the crash. The driver was able to crawl out the window and run about 200 yards (180 m) up the highway to get help. The 39 passengers of the bus were all sleeping at the time and all were injured in one way or another. Twenty-one passengers were treated at hospitals and released. Nine were hospitalized in stable condition, and three were in critical condition.[3]
[edit] Greyhound shutdown
Media attention to this event was intense, with suggestions of terrorist activity. The United States was on edge as only weeks before, on September 11, Muslim hijackers armed with the exact same short-bladed "box" knives commandeered four commercial planes and subdued flight crews before crashing the jets into the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and into the ground in rural Pennsylvania.[1] A temporary nationwide shutdown of the Greyhound bus service was put into effect.[2]
[edit] Greyhound esponse
In response to the incident, Greyhound Lines has installed shields on most of its newer coaches that, even if forced open, prevent someone from easily reaching the driver.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Croatian Man was Muslim" Ted Sampley US Veteran Dispatch Oct 7 2001
- ^ a b FBI Congressional Testimony October 11 2001
- ^ a b c Passenger slits drivers throat The New York Times Oct 1 2001
