Maryland Man Charged With Hijacking Megabus

A Maryland man was shot in his thumb by police and arrested for trying to hijack a Megabus in Columbus, Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

“This is mental-health-related; it’s not me,” Arsenio A. Rodriguez said in court Tuesday, according to the newspaper.

Rodriquez – who has addresses in Bowie, Bethesda and Gaithersburg in Maryland court records – has been charged in recent years with theft, assault and disorderly conduct.

The 26-year-old was charged with robbery after police say he boarded a Chicago-bound Megabus carrying a pellet gun and ordered the driver to drive to Indianapolis. The driver refused, and Rodriguez told him to get off the bus.

Police say several bus passengers called 911.

Investigators told the newspaper that Rodriguez pointed the gun at an officer who shot Rodriguez in his thumb. A bus passenger also was struck by police gunfire in the right hip. Both men were treated at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and released.

Rodriguez shouted during his Tuesday court appearance, saying his mental-health problems began almost five years ago.

“The jail has not given me any help with my mental-health problems,” the Ohio newspaper reports he said as he was led out of court.