Two people have been arrested in connection with last week’s shooting at a SEPTA bus stop in Philadelphia, police said Monday.
Eight Northeast High School students were wounded in the after-school shooting last Wednesday, two of them critically, when three people spilled out of a car that was waiting across the street from the stop. Police said Monday they have the driver of the car and the shooter in custody and have identified the two others who jumped out along with the shooter.
On Monday afternoon, police and collaborating local and federal law enforcement agencies announced the arrest of Jamaal Tucker, 18, who turned himself in on Friday, and Ahnile Buggs, 18, who was picked up on Saturday. Police also recovered a fully loaded, .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol outfitted with an extended magazine, laser sights and a Glock switch that rendered it into a “fully automatic machine gun,” Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said at a press conference.
Both suspects face multiple charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy, simple assault, reckless endangerment, firearms violations and other charges.
The shooting happened at about 3 p.m. Wednesday as students of Northeast High School waited to board the bus. Surveillance footage showed three people in balaclavas pouring out of a car, rounding a corner and blasting off more than 30 shots when the bus rolled in. Two of the victims were 15, five were 16 and one was 17, police said. It was the fourth shooting in as many days in the city’s SEPTA transit system.
Six of the wounded teens were in stable condition as of Monday, while a 16-year-old boy who was hit nine times in the torso remained in critical condition, police said.
Cops are looking at possible connection to an earlier shooting, also at a bus stop, in which a 17-year-old charter school student was slain and four others injured in a hail of gunfire as they boarded a city bus. Police are also still investigating the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man and the death of a 27-year-old man each gunned down by fellow passengers in separate incidents earlier last week.
With News Wire Services
