Foreign Affairs

Weapons on board

Passenger shoots the driver of a bus in North Carolina, the driver responds. The video

A passenger opens fire on the driver, shatters the protective glass, but does not kill him. The latter stops the bus and responds by shooting at the attacker who tried to hide under the seats.

29/05/2023

A bus driver and a passenger were both injured in an exchange of gunfire on a bus in North Carolina. The shooting, which took place on May 18, begins after the passenger asked to get off the bus at a point where there was no stop, according to a statement from the Charlotte Area Transit System. An argument begins between the driver and the passenger that escalates when the latter, identified as Omarri Shariff Tobias, begins to mock the driver. "I challenge you to touch me," he says in surveillance camera footage, "I'm going to blow your ass." Then he pulls out a firearm and so does the driver, David Fullard.

A spokesman for the company told CNN that both men fired "in quick succession" as two other passengers on the bus sought cover, though it's unclear who fired first. Both men suffered non-fatal injuries. According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Tobias was charged with assault with a lethal weapon that resulted in serious injury, threats and carrying a hidden firearm (in some communities in the United States hiding a weapon is considered a crime). It was not immediately clear whether the driver will also be charged with any crime, but in the meantime the transport company has fired him.