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A man is facing terror charges after he threatened the driver of a Metro bus last night with a backpack rigged with exposed wires to look like a bomb.
Eugenio Paredes, 62, was arrested last night around 6 p.m. on suspicion of making terrorist threats and possessing a hoax explosive device.
Passengers were evacuated from the bus at the intersection of Vermont Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. That intersection was shut down and metro trains bypassed that subway stop, while detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Arson/Explosives Detail investigated the threat.
It turned out to be a hoax, but, of course, authorities were on high alert with the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks just hours away.