Pubdate: Sat, 26 Nov 2005
Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)
Copyright: 2005 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Bruce Hamilton, West Bank bureau
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

STORM 'HERO' BOOKED WITH DRUG CHARGES

He Stole Bus, Rescued Others After Katrina

An Algiers man hailed by some as a hero for commandeering a school bus
the day after Hurricane Katrina to take 60 stranded residents to
safety in Houston has been arrested on drug charges where his bus
journey began: the Fischer public housing complex.

Jabar Gibson, 20, who garnered a movie deal and national attention as
the renegade bus driver, was booked Friday with possession with
intent to distribute heroin after police stopped his rental car for
allegedly driving erratically, New Orleans police said. 	

Gibson and another man, Gary Burnett, were traveling on Thayer Street
near Fischer about 12:30 p.m. when they veered slightly and nearly
struck the police cruiser of officers Michael Pierce and Cory McKain,
Pierce said.

The officers pursued the men's Chevrolet Impala as it turned into
LeBoeuf Court. The suspects stopped the car and ran toward the
apartment complex, tossing what police said were drugs on the ground.
They were quickly apprehended.

Gibson became a national figure when he stole an Orleans Parish school
bus to rescue himself and his neighbors the day after Katrina struck.
He claimed he had never operated a bus, but he and his passengers
arrived safely at the Astrodome in Houston ahead of any other evacuee
bus.

Yet two weeks before the storm, on Aug. 18, authorities said Gibson
led police on a high-speed chase that ended with a wreck and left four
officers injured. In that incident, Gibson was charged with possession
of stolen property and resisting arrest by flight.

Gibson's police record also includes charges of resisting arrest,
aggravated assault, crack possession with intent to distribute and
possession of a stolen car.

On Friday, he faced charges of reckless driving and driving without a
seat belt or a driver's license in addition to the drug charge.

Asked to describe what happened, Gibson shook his head and said
nothing.

Burnett, 20, of 2025 LeBoeuf Court, was booked with possession with
intent to distribute heroin and crack cocaine. Burnett's record
includes several drug charges as well as charges of resisting an
officer and criminal trespassing.

Despite his criminal past, some have hailed Gibson's actions in the
immediate aftermath of Katrina as heroic. On the morning after the
hurricane hit, when the levees were breached and New Orleans began to
fill with water, Algiers residents were frantic.

Gibson said he and three friends siphoned a plastic jug full of fuel
and took a truck to an Algiers school bus barn. He drove one bus to
Fischer and collected about 60 people, including a week-old infant and
a pregnant mother, and shepherded them to Texas. They arrived at the
Astrodome late that night, before anyone in the Superdome or
Convention Center had been evacuated.

Last month, Gibson told a reporter, "I was in the wrong place at the
wrong time, a lot of times. But that's all behind me now. I feel like
the Lord, all the problems I was going through, he just turned it
around for me."
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