Coatesville bus shooting: Students describe chaos inside bus, as 1 arrest made
COATESVILLE, Pa. - Chester County’s District Attorney is trying to calm fears in Coatesville after a school bus was fired upon Thursday afternoon. No one was hit and investigators report they’ve made an arrest.
The intersection of Hope Avenue and Madison Street in Coatesville is mostly quiet, said residents living in multi-story homes on the block. Quiet until 2:30 Thursday afternoon when a bus carrying high school students pulled to a stop and multiple shots were fired. FOX 29 obtained security camera video capturing eight shots being fired and three of the suspects running away.
A brother and sister spoke to FOX 29’s Jeff Cole. They were on the bus when the shots were fired. Asking not to be identified, the 10th grader said, "My experience was insane. It was just crazy. I never ducked down so quickly ever like that. My sister was scared too."
School bus struck by gunfire in Coatesville: DA
A Coatesville Area School District bus was struck by gunfire in Coatesville Thursday, the Chester County District Attorney says.
His sister added, "I was like what was that. I looked at my brother. He said it was a gunshot. I looked at the driver’s window and I saw the bullet hole, that’s when I really got scared."
Police report the shots were fired by two of the four masked suspects. Police released a picture of the suspects just after the shooting. No one was hit, but the bus was struck in the front and the windshield luckily missing the driver.
Student exiting bus was targeted by group in Coatesville ambush shooting: DA
A teenager was arrested after prosecutors say he was among a group that opened fire on a student who was exiting a school bus Thursday in Coatesville.
District Attorney Christopher de Barrena-Sarobe, of Chester County, said, "This was a targeted event where the actors were targeting someone getting off the bus. This was not some sort of threat to attack a school or random act of violence."
Security cameras captured three of the suspects casually moving about the neighborhood likely before the attack. The D.A. reports police have arrested 17-year-old Jaki White-Marshall, of Coatesville, and expect to charge him as an adult.
DA de Barrena-Sarobe added, "This inexcusable conduct - I can’t express in words how shocking it is to everyone this happened in Chester County."
Tina Everitt said she arrived home with her school-aged child moments after the shooting. She explained, "Typically, we’re home at 2:23 to 2:27[p.m.]. What a blessing that she got out of school a little late and we pulled up to the cops instead of the shooting."
Editor's Note: In a statement to the media in the days following the shooting, an attorney for White-Marshall says in part, "Jaki was merely present to watch a fight he heard about on a social media website. He is innocent of each and every crime he has been charged with."