The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

His Ex-Girlfriend Was Driving the Bus

Posted on | January 9, 2025 | No Comments

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation operates a fleet of buses called DASH (Downtown Area Short Hop). Two days before Thanksgiving, 911 received a call that one of the DASH buses was being followed by an armed man driving a white Maserati. The caller told the 911 dispatcher there was a “domestic dispute” between the Maserati driver and the woman driving the bus, who was his ex-girlfriend and the mother of one of his children. He brandished a gun at the bus driver, and then began following the bus — a Maserati chasing a bus.

As I was watching a recently-released YouTube video of the incident, I was mystified by this bit of information. A Maserati is a pricey Italian sports car. New models sell for as much as a quarter-million dollars, although Maserati offers lower-priced models that can be had for as little as $60,000. Still, it’s a prestigious high-status luxury brand, so how is it that a bus driver’s ex-boyfriend is driving a Maserati? Like, if you’re tooling around LA in a Maserati, shouldn’t you be dating movie starlets or fashion models? Instead, you’re hooking up with bus drivers?

Perhaps you see why my curiosity was aroused.

Multistate Drug Organization
Dismantled; 31 Defendants Face
Federal Drug and Firearms Charges

That was the headline on a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas in September 2018:

This drug-trafficking organization is alleged to be led by Eric Baldwin, 29, and Nicholas Robinson, Jr., 23, both of Little Rock. The indictment named 23 defendants from the central Arkansas area — where the drugs were distributed — and eight defendants from southern California, which is alleged to be the source of the drugs.
“This criminal organization stretched from Arkansas to California, and was responsible for distributing large quantities of illegal drugs here in our neighborhoods,” U.S. Attorney Hiland said.

Among other things, authorities seized more than 40 pounds of methamphetamine as part of the investigation. The ringleaders in Arkansas had been using wire transfers to send money to California as payment for the drugs, which were sent via the Post Office.

Aundre Lamar Jones of Los Angeles was among those indicted, and in November 2021, Jones “was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Brian Miller to serve eight months in federal prison”:

Aundre Lamar Jones, 34, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in the drug ring . . .
Under U.S. sentencing guidelines, Miller said, the recommended sentence for Jones ranged from six to 12 months in prison, a fine of $2,000 to $20,000 and a term of supervised release from one to three years. Probation from one to five years was also listed as an option.
Jones’ attorney, Darrell Brown Jr. of Little Rock, asked Miller to consider a sentence of probation, saying Jones’ primary problems were caused by a longtime addiction to drugs.
“He does need assistance with the drug issue,” Brown said, “which has caused him additional problems here.”
Brown pointed out that Jones, at 34 years old, is the father of three boys and that he had accepted responsibility for his actions and was trying to make positive changes. . . .
But Miller, considering Jones’ circumstances, said he was troubled by additional charges Jones had racked up since his indictment, including a weapons charge.
“He’s 34 years old, he lives with his mother, and I think he gets $1,500 in unemployment,” Miller said. “The job he was working, for which he is receiving unemployment benefits, he didn’t have it very long.”
Miller pointed out that Jones had worked for 12 years for a temporary staffing company, which he said at best provided only sporadic employment.
“It doesn’t, except for the time he had his own business, look like he’s ever had long-term gainful employment,” he said. “Living in Los Angeles with no gainful employment and making what it appears you’ve been making, it begs the question what do you do for income, and if you’re not working and you don’t have any money, you still have to live. It requires you to find other ways to make money. I don’t know if that’s true but I’m telling you what it looks like.”
Miller said based on Jones’ criminal history, he had been close to some significant crimes, including a murder, for which he was not charged.
“What this smells like, or what it looks like, is that you’re out here doing things you probably shouldn’t be doing and this time you got caught,” he said. “That’s what it looks like.”

Judge Miller is a shrewd observer. How are you supporting three children by “sporadic” employment through a temp agency? The circumstances were suspicious, even if the judge didn’t know that Aundre Lamar Jones was driving around LA in a Maserati, which brings us back to that incident two days before Thanksgiving this year:

A man has died a day after he led Los Angeles police on a chase and engaged in a gun battle with officers in West Adams, officials said Wednesday.
Police identified the suspect as 37-year-old Aundre Jones. Jones had been hospitalized after the shooting that occurred Tuesday afternoon in the 3000 block of West Boulevard, but he was pronounced dead on Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The violent series of events unfolded around 12:17 p.m. Tuesday when police were called about a domestic violence suspect in a white Maserati who was apparently following the driver of a city DASH bus in the San Pedro area.
According to police, the bus driver and Jones previously dated and had a child together.
Responding officers spotted Jones’ vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, but he sped away, beginning a chase that headed north on the 110 Freeway, police said.
They chased him along the freeway and into the West Adams area and eventually into a residential neighborhood near West and Jefferson boulevards.
The suspect pulled into a driveway, parked behind an apartment building and walked toward the street, where police were approaching.
“The suspect in the driveway pulled out two guns — one in each hand — and opened fire on the officers,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters Tuesday. “Officers returned fire, striking the suspect.”
LAPD says Jones and officers fired multiple rounds at each other.
Jones was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital, where he died Wednesday.
Two 9mm semi-automatic handguns were recovered next to Jones at the scene, police said.
The suspect’s mother, who police said approached Jones during the shooting, was struck by gunfire on the arm and brought to a local hospital. She was treated for her injury and is expected to make a full recovery.

Now you can watch the YouTube video with police body camera footage of the incident in which Aundre Lamar Jones died in the proverbial “hail of police gunfire.” Toward the end, you see cops pull a woman away from Jones’s bullet-riddled body — that’s his mother. Apparently the whole point of that lengthy police chase was so he could make it to his mother’s apartment, so she could watch him go down with guns blazing.

My favorite part of the video is at the beginning, where they play recordings of 911 calls, and you hear the dispatcher repeating what the caller has just told her, to confirm that she’s got the correct information: “A Maserati is chasing the DASH bus?” Like, you’re kidding me?

Just incidentally, none of the news media coverage of this November shootout included the background information I gave you about Aundre Jones being busted by the feds for drug trafficking. Apparently nobody in the world of LA journalism has the kind of natural curiosity that would lead them to ask the obvious question, “Who is this guy driving a Maserati, chasing a bus and shooting at the cops?” The spelling of his first name was unusual enough that I figured Google might turn up some information about his previous criminal activity because, let’s face it, nobody begins their criminal career this way. While I didn’t expect what I found — a federal prison sentence for an interstate drug-trafficking operation — I knew I’d find something, because there had to be some explanation for why the bus driver’s ex-boyfriend was driving a Maserati.

Are you driving a Maserati? Because I know that I’m not driving a Maserati. Apparently, the only people who can afford to drive a Maserati are the kind of criminals who die in shootouts with police.



 

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Category: California, Crime

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