Special-needs student found dead on Calif. bus

Nick Penzenstadler | USA TODAY

A 19-year-old special needs student died Friday afternoon after he was left on a school bus for several hours.

Authorities identified the man as Hun Joon Lee, of Whittier, Calif., on Saturday afternoon, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Paramedics responded to the Whittier Union High School District parking lot at around 4:23 p.m. Friday to find several bus drivers attempting to resuscitate the unresponsive man. He was pronounced dead minutes later.

Lee was a student at the adjacent Sierra Education Center’s transitional program.

Whittier Police are investigating the death and treating it as suspicious, since “nothing that we’ve learned so far would lead us to believe he had any medical conditions,” Brad White, the department spokesman told the Los Angeles Times.

Temperatures Friday afternoon hovered around 90 degrees in the city about 20 miles east of Los Angeles.

Lee’s mother called the school Friday afternoon after he didn’t return on schedule and police are investigating the possibility he was in the bus all day, according to KTLA-TV.