Richmond County School System Releases More Information On Bus Shooting Incident

Augusta, GA—Richmond County School System Public Safety officers scoured a school bus involved in a shooting, Saturday night, on Monday morning looking for any projectiles or further clues into this case. The search turned up empty.

A wrong turn during an out of town trip Saturday resulted in a bullet through the back window. Spokesman Louis Svehla says the bus driver was trying to get back to the interstate to return to Augusta, when it detoured onto a residential street.

Monday, crews were working to replace the glass (about $150) in the brand new 2010 bus. Richmond County school bus 287 is parked for now at bus headquarters. “During that process, as described by some of the students, they heard a popping noise and the back glass shattered,“ says Svehla.

Acting transportation director Jimmy Wiley says he’s extremely pleased with the way his bus driver and everyone involved handled the situation. There were 18 students and 5 faculty on the bus at the time. Witnesses say they saw two men running away from the bus after the bullet shattered the window, one reportedly with a gun.

A 13-year old Murphey Middle School student was cut up from the glass. She was treated and released at the scene. No one else was hurt.

“You certainly don’t expect something like that to occur, and this is as random as anything could be. Students going for a good cause and this happens. This is not something you can expect or plan for. They’re all very happy everyone’s okay. You never know what’s going to happen when anybody has firearms,“ says Svehla.

So far, authorities in Gwinnett County have not named any suspects.