Garland ISD

Man Tries to Lure Teen, Garland ISD Bus Driver Steps Into Action

Suspect, Jonathan Trinh, was arrested by Richardson Police on an unrelated charge

NBC Universal, Inc.

A bus driver for the Garland Independent School District is being hailed a hero for helping one of her students.

Reva, who prefers to only share her first name, has worked for the school district’s Transportation Department for 16 years.

“It was a normal morning,” Reva said. “I'm usually a couple minutes late getting there because of the traffic, but that morning I was on time.”

Reva was approaching one of her morning middle school bus stops on May 18 when she noticed an unfamiliar car approaching one of her students.

“My gut feeling was telling me something was not right,” Reva said. "This guy was hanging out all the way out his car window trying to get her attention. And whatever he was saying to her, frightened her.”

Reva pulled up as close as she could to the female student and opened the doors.

“He gave me a real mean look, and he pulled off. She got on the bus and said, ‘Miss, he's saying some weird stuff to me,’” Reva said. I said, "‘It's OK. You're safe now. You're OK. I've got you.'”

According to the school district, the student was followed by the man to allegedly lure her to his vehicle.

"I just thought, this is not right," Reva said. "We need to get this guy. And so that's when I automatically called dispatch. Dispatch got ahold of the police.”

Reva spotted the driver moments later.

"As I turned left to go down the street, I really realized that he was going to come out on the street where I was again. So I pulled my bus down there and kind of blocked the intersection where he was to possibly make him go around in front of me so I could get his rear license plate."

The license plate helped Garland Police identify the suspect, Jonathan Haung Trinh.

Trinh was wanted in Richardson for indecent assault after allegedly groping a woman in a coffee shop a day before. As of Tuesday afternoon, Trinh remains in jail with a bond set at $25,000.

Although Trinh has not been charged with a crime related to the Garland middle schooler, Reva and the school district said they are relieved he is behind bars.

“I'm happy that they got him. Because who knows if he could have done something to somebody else again. And we stopped him,” Reva said.

On Tuesday, Reva was honored by the Transportation Department’s Safety and Training Manager Tim Logan.

“We transport over 14,000 students a day. But we're especially proud of Ms. Reva and the actions and precautions that she took to help this student avoid a possibly very dangerous situation,” Logan said.

The Transportation Department plans to use this incident as an example during training to be the eyes and ears on the road to help keeps students safe.

“I do believe this situation will be used for training purposes," Logan said. "It's an excellent example of protocol being followed exactly as we train for here in the Transportation Department... There's multiple cameras on each bus and it's again, wonderful to see training in action and protocol being followed. And I'm just glad that the student was safe and the precautions were followed."

Contact Us