Driver fleeing deputies hits school bus, ditches gun, department says

Two people are in custody and two are at large after fleeing Pierce County sheriff’s deputies and hitting a school bus in South Hill on Thursday afternoon, a department spokesman said.

Deputies were behind a stolen car when the driver noticed them and took off about 3:30 p.m., sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The car clipped a car and a semitruck, then hit the back end of a school bus, Troyer said.

The car fled that scene and was found near Meridian East and 152nd Avenue East in a grassy patch.

The occupants of the car fled and the driver of the car dumped a handgun into a retention pond, Troyer said. The driver and one other person was arrested; two others got away.

Pierce County sheriff’s divers found the handgun later in the afternoon in the pond, Troyer said.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the crash involving the Puyallup School District bus, spokeswoman Brooke Bova said.

Children were aboard the bus but none were injured, Troyer said.

Both investigations are ongoing.

This story was originally published June 1, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "Driver fleeing deputies hits school bus, ditches gun, department says."