1 dead, 5 hurt in shooting on packed Greyhound bus

LOS ANGELES — A man cursing and muttering incoherently opened fire aboard a packed Greyhound bus in Southern California early Monday, killing one person and wounding five others in a seemingly random attack before passengers disarmed him, authorities and a witness said.

The driver of the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco bus pulled off onto the shoulder, where some of those aboard led the killer off the vehicle, and he was quickly taken into custody, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Brian Pennings said. The driver continued on to the next exit as passengers performed first aid on the wounded, he said.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately known, and there was no indication the gunman knew any of the victims, Pennings said. He said several ammunition magazines were discovered along with the gun.

The bus was traveling on Interstate 5 near the small mountain community of Lebec, about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles, when the passenger started shooting with a semi-automatic handgun shortly before 1:30 a.m. Forty-three people were aboard, including 6- and 8-year-old children, who were not hurt.

The dead passenger was identified as a 51-year-old woman from Colombia. Two victims were hospitalized with serious injuries, Pennings said.

Passenger Mark Grabban, 29, told The Associated Press that the gunman had been sitting with his leg sticking out into the aisle, muttering to himself incoherently.

“He was just saying weird stuff like ‘you don’t know me like that,’ ‘wait til we get to the station,’ ‘get away from the dude in the striped shirt,’” Grabban said in a series of Instagram messages.

Suddenly, the man started cursing and shooting, Grabban said. Grabban hid beneath the seat in front of him. He said the gunman seemed to fire eight or nine shots that “seemed to go on forever.”

Then, silence fell. The injured passengers began moaning, and others started panicking. It was dark outside and they couldn’t see what the gunman was doing after he got off the bus. Grabban said the driver of the stopped vehicle asked over the loudspeaker if anyone had been hurt and did not immediately pull away. “Everyone was screaming at him to drive off,” Grabban said.

Pennings gave no immediate details on how the passengers disarmed the killer or made him get off the bus.