U.S.

Report: Police ID Bus Shooter

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 27, 1998 / 7:17 PM EST / CBS

Seattle TV station KING says police have identified the shooter that sent a bus plunging into a Seattle apartment buidling as Silas Cool, a 43-year-old unemployed man.

The station says police believe it was Cool who shot the driver of the bus Friday, causing it to careen off a bridge, before fatally shooting himself. Another passenger died from crash-related injuries.

Officials at a local shelter say Cool was well behaved, didn't seem aggressive and mostly kept to himself when he visited.

His father tells the station Cool suffered from depression because of a bad back.

Police have not confirmed the TV station's report.

The Metro bus had 32 people aboard when it plummeted off Seattle's Aurora Bridge on Friday and crashed into an apartment building below. The driver, who had been shot by a man on the bus, was thrown from the vehicle and killed, authorities said.

KIRO

Police are investigating the possibility that the crash was the result of a murder-suicide. Police say the alleged shooter was found near the bus and a fired gun nearby. A second handgun that was not fired was recovered from the dead man's body. Police would not confirm published reports that the gunman shot himself in the head.

Another passenger who had been in critical condition died on Saturday morning of head injuries suffered in the wreck.

Fire Department spokeswoman Sheila Strehle said the 30 passengers aboard the bus were taken to six area hospitals.

The 60-foot articulated bus crashed through the guardrail at the north end of the bridge that crosses Seattle's Ship Canal.

Survivors say the attacker was a passenger sitting across the aisle from the driver in the seat directly behind the front door. The attack reportedly came without warning.

"We do have information from some witnesses that they saw this man shoot the bus driver"said Seattle Police Department spokeswoman Christie Lynn Bonner.

Aerial photographs showed firefighters crawling among the wreckage of the bus' two sections, and performing first aid on a victim atop a roof.

KIRO

The bus fell about 50 feet, coming to rest right side up on the yard and street outside the apartment house. Firefighers evacuated the building and checked it for possible victims.

The two sections of the bus were at right angles, with one side shredded open.

Dave Chacone, who was staying in the apartment building that was hit, said he was standing on a porch with his friend Sara Krause directly underneath the bridge. The bus, he said, flew right over them.

"We were outside talking, heard a noise, looked up and saw this bus coming," he said. "I looked up and saw some big chunks (of concrete railing) coming right at me. I ran into the apartment. You could see people in the bus and on the ground, crying for help."

Krause was grazed by a piece of falling concrete.

People from the bus "were moaning and screaming," she said. "I saw legs and twisted bodies. They were just screaming."

Below the bridge is the Fremont district, a densely populated neighborhood of homes, apartments, shops and restaurants.

Erin McGrath, who was on her way to eat at a restaurant, said she volunteered to help pass out blankets and take the names of those aboard the bus.

"Most were in bad shape," she said.

"It just crashed, broke in two and crashed right in front of the apartment building," Judy Jurgi, a witness, told CBS affiliate KIRO-TV.

"We smelled fuel really bad. I heard some people cry, 'Help me, help me.'"

The driver lost control and the bus crossed the northbound lanes and struck a van and a light pole before plunging through the guardrail, Bonner said. The person driving the van was shaken but not injured, she said.

The bus landed mostly in the yard of the two-story apartment house on the hillside beneath the bridge, though the building's roof was damaged. Diesel fuel spilled from the bus, but there was no fire.

The Aurora Bridge, a four-lane highway that carries State Route 99, rises hundreds of feet above the ship canal at the west end of Lake Union. The accident was near where the bridge returns to ground level on the north side.

"I heard it, a crunch, like I never heard before," said P.J. Macouriadis, who lives a block and a half from the accident site. She said she hurried to the scene, and when she saw the injured, said to herself, "God help them."

The accident happened Friday at about 3:20 p.m. PST as the bus was headed north from the city's downtown area. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles swarmed upon the area, one of the city's busiest roadways.

Traffic was backed up for miles in both directions on the busy shopping day.