A North Carolina bus driver and passenger opened fire on each other following an argument over an unscheduled stop, leaving both men injured, newly released video shows.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers responded to a shooting on a Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) bus near the Charlotte Premium Outlet Mall on May 18 shortly before 11:20 a.m. Officers located two gunshot victims upon arrival – bus driver David Fullard and passenger Omarri Shariff Tobias.
The two men got into an altercation after Tobias asked Fullard to let him off at a “not-assigned bus stop,” CATS spokesperson Brandon Hunter told Fox News Digital. Fullard said no, which was then followed by a “two-minute escalation of verbal altercation,” Hunter said.
Both men proceeded to draw weapons. Video footage of the shooting shows Tobias walking up to Fullard as he is driving. The two men begin to shoot at each other, shattering glass during the chaos. Hunter stated he was unaware which man shot first.
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“There [were] two other bystanders on the bus. At this point, they head back to the back of the bus to go away from the two gentlemen,” Hunter told Fox News Digital.
A bus driver and passenger shot at each other in an incident on a bus in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 18, police say. (WJZY)
Video shows Tobias running toward the back of the bus, with one bystander crawling in the aisle to get away from the shots.
The bus comes to a stop, with one of the bystanders then being able to get off.
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Video shows Fullard walking back into the bus, shooting and then exiting the bus from the front door and shooting again.
Both Fullard and Tobias were transported to the hospital following the incident, with Tobias suffering life-threatening injuries, according to a police press release. Fullard is recovering at home after suffering non-life-threatening injuries, Hunter told Fox News Digital.
Tobias is charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injuries, communicating threats and carrying a concealed firearm, according to police.
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Fullard was terminated by his employer, RATP Dev, following the shooting. Fox News Digital reached out to RATP Dev and Fullard’s attorney Ken Harris for comment. Harris told WSL-TV that Fullard feared for his life.
“We believe that the situation could have been de-escalated because the bus operators are trained on de-escalation,” Hunter told Fox News Digital. “And so just because the operator wasn’t at a bus stop, he could de-escalate it by letting the gentleman off the bus if he could have pulled the bus over safely to let him off.”
Bus driver holding a gun after being shot at by a passenger. (WJZY)
Hunter also noted that while this was a “tragic incident,” situations such as these do not occur on a regular basis.
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“Ninety-nine percent 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 said.
“We will not be able to solve this problem on our own,” Brent Cagle, interim CEO of CATS, said in a press release. “However, CATS is committed to doing what we can to address this with our partners at CMPD, and our partners at RATP Dev who employ and manage our bus operators.”
Fox News’ Mitch Picasso contributed to this report.
