Officials say the 20-year-old targeted a student and pointed a gun at the bus driver and children before fleeing.
SPRING, Texas — A 20-year-old man was arrested Tuesday after deputies say he blocked a Spring ISD school bus with his SUV on Monday morning, boarded with a gun, and aimed it at the driver and students before trying to pull a teen off the bus. No injuries were reported.
Authorities and school officials said the arrest followed a daylong search after the confrontation on Dec. 15 near the 24500 block of Birnam Wood Boulevard. Investigators identified the suspect as David Romeo Madison of Spring. He faces multiple felonies and remained in the Harris County Jail on Wednesday as detectives continued taking statements from witnesses and reviewing camera footage from the neighborhood and the bus. District leaders said extra officers were posted along routes and campuses as classes resumed normally.
Deputies said the episode began just after 7 a.m. Monday when a Spring High School route picked up students in a residential area north of Houston. According to officials, a man who had been following the bus used his SUV to stop it, stepped out holding a handgun and demanded the door open. Students yelled for the driver to keep it closed, but the man climbed aboard, pointed the gun toward the front, and confronted a student he knew. Several students scrambled toward the rear; some used an emergency exit to get out, according to preliminary accounts. “The bus driver did everything by the book to protect the kids,” Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said. The driver pulled away to a nearby Spring ISD campus once the man backed off and left in the SUV.
Investigators and the district police chief said the man was not a Spring ISD student and had no affiliation with the bus route beyond the teen he confronted. Court filings state the suspect tried to grab the girl by the arm and hair, and that witnesses heard him threaten people on the bus. Officials said he fled within minutes, setting off a search that involved constable deputies, Spring ISD Police, and the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force. By early Tuesday, task force members took the suspect into custody without incident. Records list three charges: aggravated assault against a public servant, attempted aggravated kidnapping, and terroristic threat. Authorities said a weapon was recovered during follow-up interviews; whether it was the same gun shown on the bus remained under review.
Spring ISD said the bus driver followed district safety training by moving the vehicle to a secure location and radioing for help. At the campus, students were checked by staff and transferred to a different bus for the trip to Spring High School. Counselors were made available, and families received an alert about the incident. Officials emphasized that no students were physically hurt and that the driver’s actions limited the encounter to less than a minute. The bus stop sits along a corridor lined by subdivisions and pocket parks, about five miles east of the high school. Parents gathered at the stop later Monday morning, trading videos captured by home surveillance systems that showed an SUV angled across the road and a bus at a standstill.
District leaders said they would review route procedures, stop locations, and camera coverage. Spring ISD Police Chief Ken Culbreath said additional patrols would remain in place through the week while detectives reconstructed the timeline. The constable’s office said investigators were seeking any riders who had not yet given statements. Prosecutors said charges were filed based on witness accounts and initial video; they will assess further counts if new evidence emerges. A magistrate hearing is expected this week, when a judge will consider bond conditions and potential protective orders on behalf of the student and bus staff.
Neighbors described a tense scene in the minutes after the bus moved away. “You could hear kids crying and calling home,” said Maria Torres, who lives near the stop and walked outside after hearing the commotion. A sophomore who rides the route said he and others “hit the floor” when the man came aboard. “The driver told us to stay low,” the student said, adding that some classmates pushed toward the back exit while others crouched between seats. The district said the driver would receive additional support and time off if needed.
As of Wednesday morning, the suspect remained jailed on the three felony counts while detectives collected additional video and interviewed students who were absent on Monday. A first court appearance is expected by Friday. The district said extra police will continue shadowing buses on Dec. 17–19, when the fall semester ends, and will brief families on any schedule changes.
Author note: Last updated December 17, 2025.