SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 18, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — Police are looking for a group of teens who argued with a Utah Transit Authority bus driver Tuesday night and then fired shots into the bus after they were asked to leave.
UTA Police Lt. Kyle Bosgieter said the incident occurred just after 9 p.m. in the area of 1920 W. North Temple, on Route 217, when the bus operator picked up a group of four or five juveniles, all male.
There was an altercation, apparently about paying for a fare, Bosgieter said, and the driver asked the youths to get off the bus.
“They left, and as they left, shots were fired at the bus,” Bosgieter said.
Four or five passengers were on the bus at the time, but no one was injured.
Medical personnel responded to the scene and treated one passenger for a “stress-related incident,” Bosgieter said.
He added that it was lucky more people weren’t riding, and that no one was sitting near the windows that were hit.
The windows were shattered and “spider-webbed.”
Asked if there had been previous problems with this group of teens, he said none that he knows of, and the bus operator — who was “shaken up but OK” — didn’t know them.
The police brought dogs in to see if they could pick up a track or locate any type of evidence. Bosgieter didn’t say whether anything had been found.
He said the teens were not all one race, but he didn’t know how many of them were Hispanic or black or white.
A news release Wednesday morning from UTA spokesman Carl Arky said that none of the
suspects involved in the incident have been taken into custody.
UTA Police Chief Fred Ross said the case is still active and that his department is following up strong leads. Ross also indicated a pellet gun may have been used in the shooting though that has not been confirmed by ballistics tests.
Video of the incident is still under review and will not be available Wednesday, the news release said.
Anyone who may have seen this group of juveniles running from the area shortly after 9 p.m. is asked to call UTA PD Dispatch at 801-287-3937.
Its official. Our city is gone. Instead of the safe, wholesome place to raise a family that it once was, we are now the same as any other major city in America. A crime ridden metropolis. No respect. None. No respect for others or even for themselves. What a shame.