2 killed, 5 wounded aboard party bus
OAKLAND >> A birthday celebration aboard a party bus ended tragically early Tuesday when gunmen fired about 70 rounds at the vehicle as it traveled on an Oakland freeway and city streets, killing two teens and wounding five other people.
The targeted attack began about 12:20 a.m. on eastbound Interstate 580, as the bus carried about a dozen women back to Oakland from San Francisco, authorities said. The group was celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday.
At least two shooters began
firing at the bus near the Seminary Avenue off-ramp, and followed it onto city streets, pumping more bullets into the bus near 68th Avenue and Foothill Boulevard in East Oakland.
The bus driver was able to pull into the nearby Oakland Police Eastmont Substation. One person died in the vehicle and another later died at an Oakland hospital, the county coroner’s office said. Five other victims — all women or teen girls — were wounded and taken by ambulance to the hospital, including one person who was critically injured.
The names, ages and hometowns of the two women killed were not made publicly available Tuesday afternoon. A relative told the Bay Area News Group that one of the victims killed was Alayasia Thurston, a 19-yearold Oakland native. Thurston had a daughter who is about to turn 3 years old, said the relative, who did not wish to be identified.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around something so crazy,” the relative said. “She never made it off the bus.”
The Modesto Bee reported that the other person killed was 16-year-old Zoey Hughes, of Modesto. The girl died from gunshot wounds at an Oakland hospital, her mother Christina Hughes told that newspaper.
“I just fell to my knees; I couldn’t feel my legs, I couldn’t feel my feet,” Christina Hughes said.
A man who identified himself as the father of the 21-year-old who was celebrating her birthday told the Bay Area News Group that the woman was shot in the leg but is in stable condition. The man’s other daughter and a niece were also on the bus, he said.
The bullet-riddled bus was towed away Tuesday morning and held as evidence. Authorities estimate about 70 shots were fired from at least two different guns.
A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol, the lead investigating agency, said detectives had little information about the suspects or suspect vehicle. Oakland police are assisting CHP with the investigation, since it began on the freeway and later spilled onto city streets.
Though the shootings took place within city limits, they are considered to be under CHP jurisdiction. On Sunday, two 17-yearolds were shot and killed in Oakland, the 50th and 51st homicide victims of the year in the city, well ahead of the pace of killings in 2020. At this time last year, OPD had investigated 24 homicides.
The CHP said the preliminary investigation showed that the party bus was targeted by shooters. It was the second time in about a month a person was wounded aboard a party bus in Oakland. On April 9, a 25-year-old woman was wounded in the 7600 block of MacArthur Boulevard while riding with more than 30 other passengers. None of the other passengers or the driver were injured and the woman survived.
Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong said the number of bullets fired at the party bus and the number of people wounded was of great concern. The chief visited five of the seven victims Tuesday at Highland Hospital.
“We continue to see this high level of violence,” Armstrong said. “This incident is another one that I hope the community is concerned about.”
The chief said the two recent attacks on party buses in Oakland are “not random,” though investigators have not specified a potential motive.
“People target these buses because they know there are individuals on those buses that maybe they have differences with or ongoing feuds with,” Armstrong said. “I do not believe that all party buses are unsafe, but these specific shootings were targeted, very focused on the individuals that were a part of the party bus.”
Following the gunfire, the CHP shut down traffic on east I-580 at the MacArthur Boulevard exit to investigate the shooting scene. The lanes were reopened later Tuesday morning.
Investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspects and the suspect vehicle. The Oakland Police Department and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering a reward of up to $40,000 for information leading to an arrest in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the CHP investigative tip line at 707-917-4491 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.