PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City officials and investigators on Monday announced that two suspects are in custody in connection with the shooting of eight Northeast High School students at a SEPTA bus stop last week. They are searching for two others, and authorities say they know who they are looking for.
The eight students were shot Wednesday when three masked gunmen opened fire on a crowd waiting after school at a bus stop near the intersection of Cottman and Rising Sun avenues in the Burholme section of the city. The gunmen were seen on surveillance video that day exiting a blue Hyundai, running to the bus stop, opening fire, and then speeding away in the same car.
Investigators say they found that stolen Hyundai abandoned in Olney on Wednesday night, and forensic evidence from that car pointed them to Jamaal Tucker, 18.
Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore says Tucker turned himself in to the Shooting Investigation Group on Friday.
Vanore was with Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, Mayor Cherelle Parker, District Attorney Larry Krasner, and representatives from ATF, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service to deliver a joint update on the investigation at a Monday afternoon press conference.
“An additional suspect was developed early Saturday morning, with the help of the U.S. Marshals,” Vanore went on to say.
U.S. Marshals and the Philadelphia Police Shooting Investigative Group served a search warrant and an arrest warrant at a home on 42nd Street near Westminster Avenue in West Philadelphia and took Ahnile Buggs, 18, into custody without incident.
“We recovered a .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol with an extended magazine that was fully loaded, and it also had laser sights on it, and it had what we call a ‘Glock switch,’ which made that firearm fully automatic. It was a machine gun,” said Vanore.
Investigators believe it’s one of three guns used in Wednesday’s shooting.
“Based on the recovery of that, sometime on Sunday, our firearms identification unit was brought in, they took a look at that gun and they were preliminarily able to tell us, that gun matches multiple casings at the scene.”
Officials did not give any specifics as to the roles Tucker and Buggs allegedly played in the shooting, but Krasner listed the charges against them, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy, gun charges and related offenses.
In Wednesday’s shooting, a 16-year-old girl and seven boys ranging in age from 15 to 17 were injured. One of them, a 16-year-old boy who was shot nine times, is awake and speaking with investigators and has been upgraded from critical to stable condition, Vanore said Monday.
This was the fourth shooting last week around SEPTA buses in as many days. In that period of time, 11 teenagers in Philadelphia were wounded or killed by gunfire.
On Sunday, March 3, a man was shot and killed Sunday as he stepped off a bus in Oxford Circle.
On Monday, March 4, Imhotep Institute Charter High School student Dayemen Taylor, 17, was fatally shot several times as he boarded a Route 6 bus after school. Four others, including two other teens, were wounded in that incident.
On Tuesday, March 5, a man on the Route 79 bus was shot and killed by a passenger exiting at Broad Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philly.
Bethel said last week that police are looking into whether Wednesday’s mass shooting has a connection with the mass shooting in Ogontz two days before, but they did not say more about that at Monday’s press briefing.
Meanwhile, authorities say, the hunt goes on.
“We have other people we need to contact. We know who they are. We are going to continually move with our investigation, not only with those individuals, but this group — anyone who may have aided and assisted them — we are coming for them too.”
Police say tips from the public have been very helpful and they continue to encourage people to come forward with any information that could be helpful to the investigation by calling 911, or submitting an anonymous tip via phone or text to 215-686-TIPS.