A school bus struck by gunfire outside an elementary school in Seattle is causing national headlines today. The school bus was waiting to pick up students outside Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on Thursday afternoon when shots rang out, according to Seattle Times .
Police quickly arrived on scene, and they began to search for a man that some witnesses say they saw carrying a rifle. The search began near 44th Avenue South and South Holly Street around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. Police searched the home the alleged suspect went into, but they found no one inside.
During this search, police received new information. Other witnesses came forward and reported to the police that a group of teens were seen in the area playing with a BB gun at the time of the shooting. Police looked at the bus, and it was then determined that the bus was indeed shot by a BB gun. It was then that the search was called off.
The bus was empty at the time of the incident, but two windows of the bus were broken by the BB bullets . The bus driver was not in the bus at the time, but the driver heard the “loud noises” of the shots and ran back inside the school for their safety, according to KDAL.
#Seattle school in lockdown after bus hit by gunfire http://t.co/mtWHx4JHrc pic.twitter.com/IKYMK5gYSI
— The_News_DIVA (@The_News_DIVA) March 12, 2015
NEW: Shots fired at Seattle school bus were BBs. Two windows shot, no injuries: http://t.co/4PgZBEOqRV pic.twitter.com/9YpQJoe67e
— KING5Now (@KING5Now) March 12, 2015
School bus was struck by BBs, not bullets as first reported by @SeattlePD . >> http://t.co/NwObBbiAgC Report at 4:58. pic.twitter.com/QOsu366n7Q
— KIRO 7 (@KIRO7Seattle) March 12, 2015
This shooting took place just before 4 p.m. in the afternoon, and it prompted a quick lockdown of the school. Two nearby schools were also put on lockdown, and it was about two hours before the lockdown was lifted.
Even with the lockdown no longer in place, students and staff left the school through a “safe exit” to nearby school busses or waiting parents. Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, located in Rainer Valley, has a student body count of 370 children. No one was injured during the incident.
School safety is a major concern in the United States. Parents fear for their children every day when they leave home. The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School woke everyone up to the fact that a shooting can happen at any time at any school.
Some schools are going to great lengths to make sure their students are prepared if a shooter attacks their school. According to a previous Inquisitr report, one Florida school caused parent outrage for an unannounced “ active shooter drill ” at the school.
No one was informed about the drill before it happened. Parents learned about the drill after the fact. One parent spoke about the drill with the media. Her daughter had a gun pointed at her during the drill, and she texted her mother immediately.
“It’s very scary, especially from a parent’s perspective. You hear all this horrible stuff on the news and you think it might be happening at your child’s school.”
Even with the outrage, it was reported that the drill did not go as planned. Some continued with their activities like it was a normal day.
In the case of this Seattle area school, no one was injured. A BB gun fired the bullets that hit the school bus. However, it could have been very different if it had been a man with a rifle that shot at the school bus. At this time, police are still investigating the incident, and there have been no arrests.
[Photo: Google Earth]
