A St. Paul man ran into the street and jumped onto a moving school bus Monday afternoon after watching its driver seize up behind the wheel, wrestling the vehicle to a stop before any of the 18 children aboard were hurt. Ebro Ahmed had no medical training and no plan beyond getting the bus to stop.
Ahmed was outside Bricks Snacks and Tobacco in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood when he saw the bus roll past him with its doors open and the driver seizing, according to KSTP. Store surveillance video reviewed by the station shows him outside the shop just before he ran toward the moving bus. He climbed aboard and tried to bring it under control, at one point accidentally shifting it into reverse before getting it into neutral and pulling the parking brake.
Once the bus stopped, Ahmed called police and ambulances to get help for the driver, the station reported. When officers arrived, he counted 18 children on board. None of them were hurt, and the driver is expected to recover.
No Training, Just a TV Show and Instinct
Ahmed told the station he has no medical experience and credited the television show Grey's Anatomy for guiding his actions in the moment. He said he was not concerned about getting credit for what happened and was simply glad everyone was okay, adding that saving and helping young people is worth doing. He also said he was grateful the emergency did not unfold on a highway or a busier street, because the outcome could have been far worse.
KSTP reported that St. Paul Public Schools said a medical emergency occurred on a Battle Creek Middle School bus route; paramedics responded, another bus continued the students' route, and the school's mental health team checked on them. Dayton's Bluff is a St. Paul neighborhood, according to Minnesota Compass.
Minnesota Law Backs Up Bystanders Like Ahmed
What Ahmed did lines up closely with Minnesota's legal framework around emergency intervention. Under Minnesota Statute 604A.01, bystanders at emergency scenes are required to give reasonable assistance if it is safe to do so, and the same statute grants civil immunity from damages to people offering uncompensated emergency help, unless they act in a willful and wanton or reckless manner, according to the Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Separately, state law requires school bus drivers to undergo physical exams and receive medical fitness certification at least every 24 months under federal commercial carrier standards, meaning drivers must meet Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration physical standards to keep a valid school bus endorsement.
St. Paul Public Schools coordinates student transportation across the district. That scale of daily operations has come under added scrutiny this year: a September investigative report found that 85 percent of buses run by a private Twin Cities contractor failed state safety inspections in 2026 and reported repeated out-of-service violations, including an instance involving five buses in St. Paul, as reported by ABC 5. Minnesota lawmakers made operating an out-of-service school bus a gross misdemeanor in 2023.
Part of a Pattern of Close Calls on Minnesota Buses
Monday's scare is not the only recent instance of a Minnesota school bus emergency ending without injury thanks to quick action. A child aboard a bus carrying 30 students in Crow Wing County used the onboard two-way radio to reach emergency dispatchers after the driver suffered a medical emergency at the wheel, a call that let responders intervene, with no injuries reported, according to FOX 9. Earlier this month, high school students in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, pulled the emergency brake and contacted dispatch after their driver passed out, safely stopping the bus, as reported by ABC News.
St. Paul has also seen its share of school bus trouble this year. In June, a school bus carrying charter school students crashed into a building at Hamline University after an inexperienced driver mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake, injuring three children and the driver; all three students were evaluated for minor injuries at Children's Hospital and released, Hoodline previously reported. The state has also invested heavily in bus safety technology, completing a $15 million initiative in 2025 to equip more than 8,000 school buses statewide with stop-arm cameras after courts recorded over 2,100 stop-arm violations in 2024 alone.
For now, Ahmed's intervention stands out as a case where one bystander's split-second decision, backed by Minnesota's bystander-assistance law, kept a frightening situation from turning into a tragedy. Open questions remain, including the bus driver's exact medical status and whether the city or school district plans any formal recognition for Ahmed's actions.
