2 Dead After Shooters Fire 70 Rounds Into Party Bus

Witness describes bullet holes the size of golf balls
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 19, 2021 9:09 AM CDT
2 Dead After Shooters Fire 70 Rounds Into Party Bus
Oakland police and fire attend to multiple people who were injured in a shooting involving a party bus in East Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. Someone opened fire on a party bus on a San Francisco Bay Area freeway early Tuesday, killing two women and wounding at least five others.   (Dylan Bouscher/Bay Area News Group via AP)

Multiple shooters fired an estimated 70 rounds into a party bus carrying a dozen women for a 21st birthday celebration in Oakland, Calif., early Tuesday, leaving two dead and five wounded. Sixteen-year-old Zoey Hughes of Modesto and 19-year-old Alayasia Thurston from Stockton were killed in the shooting, which began on Interstate 580 and continued on city streets after the bus pulled off the freeway. It had been returning from San Francisco around 12:15am. The driver, whom some have credited with saving lives, drove directly to a police station, KPIX reports. Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who visited victims in the hospital, said the shooting was targeted. The shooters "came here with a specific purpose. And the weapons they were using clearly were designed to cause significant injury to people and even kill people," he said.

The shooters fired from one or more vehicles, per the San Francisco Chronicle. Some of the bus windows were shot out and at least 24 bullet holes peppered its rear, per KPIX. One woman, whose daughter was shot within her own vehicle, described bullet holes the size of golf balls. "Whoever was shooting was just shooting," she tells KPIX. Five were injured, at least one critically, per the East Bay Times, which reports the birthday girl was shot in the leg. The deaths mark the 52nd and 53rd homicides in Oakland this year, following the shooting deaths of two 17-year-olds over the weekend, per KTVU. "How many lives do we have to lose before somebody says this is not okay?" asked Armstrong. Investigators with Oakland Police and California Highway Patrol are searching for clues at two scenes. A $40,000 reward is offered for information leading to arrests. (More shooting stories.)

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