FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The gunman in the Fort Lauderdale bus shooting fired 21 bullets in the midafternoon assault Thursday that left two dead and two wounded, according to the police.
Video from inside the bus showed the suspect, Jamal Meyers, withdraw a semiautomatic handgun from his right pocket and fire 12 shots at four people seated in the rear of the bus, according to a Fort Lauderdale Police report. He reloaded his pistol and fired another nine shots at them.
The Broward County Transit driver forced the bus into oncoming traffic, striking two cars, to reach the Fort Lauderdale police station. During her desperate drive to the police department, as shots rang out aboard the bus, drivers called 911 to complain about a rogue public bus that was putting drivers in danger. “There was a bus driving the wrong way,” one 911 caller said. “We had to just stop and let it go.”
After the bus veered into the police station parking lot, Officer Daniel Hughes heard three shots and saw Meyers quickly leave the vehicle. Hughes pointed his gun at Meyers and ordered him to lie on the ground. Meyers complied and was arrested. The shooting lasted one minute and three seconds. His gun was found on the bus.
The men who died are Gregory L. Campbell Jr., 32, of Lauderdale Lakes, and Danny Colon, 41, of Tamarac, according to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. The two surviving victims have not been identified.
The bus driver has been called a hero for quick action that helped cut the incident short. After shooting started, the driver forced the bus into a turn lane and pulled into the Fort Lauderdale police station parking lot.
“We applaud the heroic actions of our Broward County Transit bus operator whose quick thinking put the bus and its passengers in a safe zone where immediate help was available for victims of this tragic shooting,” Broward County Administrator Monica Cepero said in a statement. “Her immediate response resulted in the alleged shooter being arrested promptly by Fort Lauderdale Police.”
Arrested as the suspected shooter was Jamal Meyers, according to Fort Lauderdale police. Meyers, 34, faces two premeditated murder charges and two attempted murder charges, according to the court documents. He also faces charges of possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon and a probation violation.
Meyers is considered a serious habitual felon and has had numerous encounters with the legal system since 2003, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
His first encounter with the legal system was when he was 15 years old and charged with disrupting a school function. He also has strong-arm robbery and grand theft arrests in his teen years.
Meyers was last sent to prison on Aug. 9, 2021, after being found guilty of 10 crimes between 2017 and 2019. Half of those convictions were for burglary. Each conviction carried a three-year sentence, though he was able to serve them concurrently. In the end, he served only five months in state prison because he was given credit for spending over 800 days in jail while his criminal cases played out on court.
On Jan. 8, he was released and placed on probation until 2025.
Fort Lauderdale police said the motive for Thursday’s bus shooting remains unknown.
One shooting victim died on the bus and the other died at Broward Health Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan said. Another victim is in critical condition at Broward Health Medical Center; the fourth shooting victim is expected to survive.
Three other people were injured and treated at the scene for minor injuries when the bus crashed into cars as it crossed the road toward the police station.
“The bus driver in this particular case, her quick actions I am sure saved lives,” Acting Police Chief Luis Alvarez said. “So kudos to her. She deserves to be applauded for her actions.”
“That is a difficult thing to do. Not many people would have behaved the way this bus driver behaved and to get to the front of the police station … it pretty much saved lives,” he said.
The suspect was not injured, and no officers fired their weapons, Alvarez said.
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