Child safe, bus slaying suspect dead: US police

FORT WAYNE, Indiana (AP) - A man pulled a woman off a city bus on Wednesday, fatally shot her and then took a three-year-old boy hostage before a sniper killed him during a police stand-off.

A police officer carried the child out of a house in Fort Wayne, Indiana, about 4.30pm local time (4.30am Singapore time) and police announced soon after that the suspect, 45-year-old Kenneth Knight, was dead.

Police said from the outset that they did not believe the shooting was random, but the relationship, if any, between Knight, the woman and the child was not immediately clear.

Police spokesman Raquel Foster said a protective order had been filed against Knight in the past few days, but she did not say who had requested the order.