A mobile party cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway was brought to an abrupt end Saturday night, as a barrage of sheriff patrol cars and a helicopter responded to a call of gunshots fired from a “party bus.”
“There was a party bus with a bunch of knuckleheads on it and somebody had a handgun and fired several rounds in the air from their handgun,” said Sgt. Skikas with the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
The suspect, a 33-year-old male from Van Nuys, was taken into police custody at the scene and charged with negligent discharge of a firearm in a public place, carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle and public drunkenness.
The bus was traveling eastbound on PCH near Webb Way around 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning when the shots were allegedly fired. No injuries were reported.
Traffic was stopped on PCH in either direction as deputies rushed to the scene.
“I saw a helicopter circling around a party bus that the officers had stopped, and you could hear them on the loudspeaker telling them to get out one at a time, not facing them, and to walk backwards toward the sound of their voice,” said Louis Curson-Mayorga, a Malibu resident who saw the event unfold from his stopped car while deputies took control of the situation.
According to Curson-Mayorga, the highway was closed for about 30 minutes before deputies arrested a suspect and allowed the rest of the passengers to continue.
Sgt. Skikas described what happened.
“Deputies were nearby and heard the shots and stopped the party bus, they did a felony traffic stop on the bus, pulled the people off the bus at gunpoint which was standard operating procedure and they searched the bus and recovered a handgun,” Skikas stated.
“There were at least six cop cars, and I saw at least 10 people sitting next to them that had been cuffed, that had come out of the party bus,” Curson-Mayorga said. Skikas stated that there were “numerous deputies on scene.”
“Every available deputy in Malibu responded to this situation,” Skikas confirmed.
According to Skikas, the final number of passengers directed off the bus was 15, with one suspect allegedly confessing to discharging his firearm from the moving vehicle.
“They conducted a legal search of the bus and recovered a loaded handgun from inside the bus, and then one of the occupants of the bus confessed to firing his gun into the air and said it was his gun. He was taken into custody,” Skikas said, adding that no illegal substances such as drugs were found during the search.
The suspect was later released on bail.
“I don’t know their reason for being in Malibu,” Skikas said, though according to Curson-Mayorga their vehicle was painted “party bus” in large lettering.