View Comments COLUMBIA, S.C. — An Army trainee from Middlesex County has been arrested and charged with dozens of crimes after authorities say he boarded a South Carolina school bus with a gun Thursday and held the driver and elementary students hostage before letting them off the bus. During a news conference, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said the incident started at around 7 a.m. near Fort Jackson, the U.S. Army's largest basic training facility, located in Columbia. The trainee, dressed in physical training clothes, "ran off post and escaped" with a rifle from the installation, Lott said. Deputies then started receiving calls about someone standing on a nearby interstate flagging down cars.