Richmond County school officials have released more information today involving a Saturday incident in which a Richmond County school bus was hit by a bullet while returning from Atlanta.
A news release from schools spokesman Louis Svehla states the shooting occurred in Gwinnett County as a bus carrying Murphey Middle and Cross Creek High students was turning around in a residential area to return to the interstate and the Augusta area after missing a turn.
The release states that students on bus No. 287 – one of three headed back from all-state chorus tryouts at Mountain View High School – heard a popping noise as their bus turned onto Circle Road. The back window of the bus then shattered, causing a 13-year-old female student to receive a superficial cut from the broken glass that didn’t require stitches. Authorities say two students reported seeing two males running from the rear of the bus, one carrying what appeared to be a gun.
Two other Richmond County buses transporting Davidson Fine Arts students back to Augusta from the chorus tryout had left prior to the bus that was shot.
The Gwinnett County Police Department as well as EMS personnel responded to the scene and treated the injured student. After the incident, all students were placed at the front of the bus for the rest of the trip home, arriving back in Augusta at about 9:30 p.m. There were a total of 18 students and five adults on the bus at the time, the release states.
Richmond County schools Lt. Richard Roundtree is planning to inspect the bus to see how many projectiles struck it and to determine if any bullets can be found. If any are recovered, they will be forwarded to the Gwinnett County Police Department for further investigation, authorities said.
The release states that an incident report is not yet available from the Gwinnett County Police Department and Lt. Roundtree is working with that agency in the case.
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Online extra: View the incident report filed with the Gwinnett County Police. (PDF format)
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Too close for comfort. I hope the young lady and her classmates will recover from the emotional impact that must have made, too. Even the Davidson students that left ahead of them were pretty shook up after hearing about it.
Glad no one was actually shot. Might we invest in a GPS for out of town trips? It might help keep you out of undesirable areas.
A GPS from WalMart would be cheap and could be passed from one bus to another for out-of-town trips.
The driver missed a turn......that is all.......have you ever manipulated a bus in traffic? It is not easy to enter the lanes you need wxactly when you need them. A GPS? Seriously? How about bullet proof windows? Makes a lot more sense.
Keep the buses in the green zone. Atlanta and anywhere in Augusta south of Wrightsboro Road is NOT in the green zone.
Curious, what sort of neighborhood was this? My guess just a hood !
Typical southern response....Go to WAL MART to buy a GPS. That is the last place I would EVER spend a penny of my money. NEVER have and NEVER will. And for the comment about bullet proof glass on a school bus? What a ridiculous comment. Now, it's too bad the bus wasn't carrying kids from Josey or Butler. THEY would have had guns of their own and could have returned fire!
Humble....about the Josey or Butler kids carrying their own guns?...Now that's funny right there! LOL!
Oops! I guess you got busted on that one, huh?
Get em "killa Ketchup" take dat super duper officer pakett and you and him go to gwinnett to solve case. I am sure Gwinnett Co Po-lice did not really "look" for bullets on bus. They knew "killa ketchup" would check bus and send it back to em. Any thing to get your name on AC so you can run for sheriff.