The driver of a public transport bus and a passenger from North Carolina had an exchange of fire after an argument over an unscheduled stop, leaving the two subjects injured, according to a published video.
Charlotte-Meckleburg Police Department officers responded to a shooting on a Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) bus in the vicinity of the Charlotte Premium Outlet Mall on May 18 before 11:20 a.m. .
Officials located the two injured men, identified as David Fullard, the bus driver, and Omarri Shariff Tobías, the passenger.
The two got into an argument after Tobias asked Fullard to drop him off at an “unassigned bus stop,” CATS spokesman Brandon Hunter said. Fullard replied that he was not going to stop, triggering a “two-minute escalation of verbal altercation,” the spokesman said.
The individuals drew their weapons. In the video images, it shows Tobías walking towards the driver while he continued driving. The men began shooting at each other, smashing the windows of the vehicle. Hunter said it was not clear who opened fire first.
“There was [había] two other passers-by on the bus. At this point, they returned to the back of the bus to get away from the two gentlemen,” the CATS representative said.
The video shows Tobías running to the back of the bus with one of the passengers present down the aisle to get away from the bullets.
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When the bus finally stops, one of the passengers manages to get off, Fox News reported.
In the footage, Fullard can be seen walking back to the vehicle, firing, then exiting the bus through the main driveway and firing again.
The two men shot were taken to a medical center, where Tobías suffered life-threatening injuries, according to a police statement.
Fullard is recovering at home after sustaining non-life-threatening injuries, Hunter said.
Tobias was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, communicating threats and carrying a concealed firearm, authorities said.
On the other hand, Fullard was fired by his employer, RATP Dev, after the shooting. The driver’s attorney, Ken Harris, said his client feared for his life.
“We think the situation could have been de-escalated because the bus operators are trained in de-escalation,” Hunter said. “So just because the operator wasn’t at a bus stop, he could de-escalate by letting the gentleman get off the bus if he could have safely stopped the bus to let him off.”
The spokesman pointed out that although this was a “tragic incident”, events like this do not occur frequently.
“99% of the time we have trips that don’t have any type of altercation like this. So this is an anomaly based on, you know, our system,” Hunter stated.
“We will not be able to solve this problem on our own,” said Brent Cagle, CATS’s interim executive director, in a news release. “However, CATS is committed to doing everything we can to address this with our partners at CMPD and our partners at RATP Dev who employ and manage our bus operators.”
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