"We demand more safety for passengers on those buses because what happened to him was an event that should have been preventable," Rivera's cousin, Marylou Mulero, told news station KTTV-TV. She added that he was a "great man and he did not deserve to go the way he did."
City leaders acknowledged the hijacking is an example of the challenges they face in keeping passengers safe amid a series of violent incidents on Los Angeles' public transit systems.
At the beginning of the hijacking, calls flooded in to 911 dispatchers as the bus driver activated a panic button that alerted police and triggered emergency messages on the exterior of the bus. The bus had been recently equipped with a barrier that allowed the driver to maintain control of the vehicle, a safety measure that officials said likely helped prevent further tragedy.
Just four months ago, Mayor Karen Bass called for beefed-up security on transit lines following a rash of violent clashes.
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