PHILADELPHIA — The driver and a suspected gunman are in custody in the shooting of eight Philadelphia high school students at a bus stop, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Monday.
Police have identified two youths who also jumped out of the car and ran to the bus stop with the 18-year-old suspected gunman, but have not yet located them, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the case. publicly before a news conference scheduled for late Monday afternoon.
The shooting on Wednesday afternoon was the fourth in as many days on public transportation, and occurred as students from nearby Northeast High School were waiting to board the ride home. An area elementary school pulled their children in and locked them up at the time of dismissal to keep them safe.
The 18-year-old in custody was arrested Saturday and the suspected driver was arrested some time earlier, officials said. Local and federal officials expected to share more details at the 4:30 p.m. news conference.
Police found the suspected getaway car, a blue Hyundai Sonata, Wednesday evening, hours after the shooting.
The students were waiting to board the bus around 3 p.m. when three masked suspects came around the corner and opened fire, according to surveillance video shared by police. The victims were between 15 and 17 years old. One of them, a 16-year-old, was hit nine times and was one of two teenagers left in critical condition.
Located more than a mile from where the shooting occurred, Northeast High School is the largest public high school in the city, with more than 3,000 students.
Police were investigating whether the shooting was possibly related to a day earlier, when a 17-year-old charter school student was shot and killed and four other people were injured when gunmen fired 40 shots at close range as people boarded a city bus. in the Ogontz section of the city.
Also last week, police believe an argument on board a bus led to a 37-year-old man being fatally shot by a passenger exiting a bus in South Philadelphia. And a 27-year-old man was killed by another passenger moments after they both got off the bus in the city’s Oxford Circle area.