Highway patrol says passenger who opened fire in custody, after driver of bus with 43 people managed to pull over and ‘coerce the suspect off the bus’

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

One person was killed and at least five were injured early on Monday in a shooting on a packed Greyhound bus in southern California.

The bus carrying 43 people was heading north on Interstate 5 toward the San Francisco area from Los Angeles, when a passenger started shooting with a semi-automatic handgun around 1.30am.

The driver of the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco bus pulled off on to the shoulder of the highway and the killer got out but was quickly taken into custody without incident.

Mark Grabban, 29, a passenger on the bus, told NBC News the gunman was talking “incoherently” before arguing with someone who had asked him to be quiet.



“He was muttering things, about, ‘Wait till we get to the station,’” he said.

Grabban said the man cursed and fired eight or nine shots. “Assuming [he] was going to get shot”, Grabban said, he got down to protect himself and his girlfriend as the shooter aimed toward the back of the bus.



“I saw the blood on the floor of the aisle,” he said. “I looked to the woman on the left, and she wasn’t responding, wasn’t moving or anything. She was lifeless.”

The dead passenger was later identified as a 51-year-old woman from Colombia. Two other victims were hospitalized with serious injuries, said Sgt Brian Pennings of the California highway patrol.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately known, and there was no indication the gunman knew any of the victims, Pennings added.

Pennings told reporters that following the shooting, the bus driver “immediately pulled to the right shoulder and somehow, we’re still trying to figure out to how this happened, [was] able to coerce the suspect off of the bus”.

The body of the woman who was killed remained on the bus as investigators secured the scene.

Pennings said the gunman left a black handgun on the bus after “voluntarily” getting off. He was found on the roadside and was taken into custody without incident.

The bus driver “handled the situation professionally and appropriately to minimize any more possible victims”, Pennings said.

Photos showed the bus parked at a Valero gas station at the base of the Grapevine section of the freeway.

Greyhound prohibits passengers from bringing guns, explosives or dangerous chemicals on board its buses or in their luggage, according to its website. The company declined to answer additional questions about security on its buses.



