A man opened fire in a Greyhound bus Wednesday evening, killing a 43-year-old woman and wounding four others as the vehicle stopped in northern California.
As the Los Angeles-bound bus stopped at an AM/PM convenience store in Oroville, a 21-year-old passenger who had exhibited “paranoid behavior” began shooting while people exited, according to officials in Butte county, where the incident took place. Shortly after, police arrested the suspect, naked, inside a nearby Walmart.
“Last night was an extraordinary event in our small town of Oroville, a mass shooting – something we have not had in the community,” said Mike Ramsey, the district attorney, at a press conference Thursday morning.
Police began receiving calls about the shooting shortly after 7.30pm and responded to the chaotic scene within a minute, officials said. Of the approximately 25 passengers, five people were injured, including a 43-year-old woman who died at the scene. An 11-year-old girl, a 25-year-old woman who is pregnant, a 38-year-old man and a 32-year-old man were also injured. At least one of the victims was shot multiple times.
The suspect is 21-year-old Asaahdi Coleman, who shortly after boarding the bus showed “what could best be described as paranoid behavior”, the Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea, said. Passengers on the bus told police that after a phone call Coleman began acting agitated, and showed people a gun he was carrying.
Coleman reportedly suspected one of the passengers on the bus was an undercover police officer, which led to a confrontation, Honea said, before he allegedly began to randomly open fire as people exited, shooting through seats and the windshield. Witnesses say the suspect fired more than 10 shots, and officials reported they recovered a dozen 9 mm bullet casings.
The suspect ran off before officers arrived. But they located Coleman inside a nearby Walmart, where he had reportedly gotten into an argument with a woman in the store and took his clothes off. Police took him into custody without incident, Honea said. He was wanted on a warrant out of another county for being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.
“This particular individual in no way shape or form should have been in possession of a firearm,” Honea said.
Officials will release the name of the woman who was killed in the incident pending notification of her family.
Though the US went a year without a high-profile mass shooting during first 12 months of the pandemic, daily gun violence has soared. According to FBI statistics, the US saw its largest-ever recorded annual increase in murders in 2020 as the national murder rate rose nearly 30%.
