Two people were killed and several others injured early Tuesday in what police say was a targeted attack on a party bus filled with birthday revellers in Oakland, Calif.
The large passenger bus was riddled with bullets on the highway into Oakland after midnight, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Two people died of their injuries while several others were taken to hospital with “varying degrees of injuries,” officials said.
“It does not appear this shooting was a random event,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. They added that there were two shooting scenes.
The bus was on its way back to Oakland, according to the California Highway Patrol. A woman on the bus was celebrating her 21st birthday.
The driver immediately raced to a police station after the shooting.
One of the victims was a 19-year-old woman with a three-year-old child, according to relatives who showed up outside the police station on Tuesday.
“It was a whole bunch of young women trying to enjoy themselves,” the victim’s stepmother told NBC Bay Area. “And someone took her life.”
A man on the bus said he was there to celebrate his daughter’s birthday, and another of his daughters was also on the bus. Both survived although one was struck by the gunfire, according to local station KPIX.
Authorities did not say how many passengers were on the bus at the time of the attack.
Dozens of bullet holes could be seen in the hull of the bus, which was still outside the station Tuesday morning. Several of the windows had been shattered by bullets.
The motive was still under investigation and no suspects had been arrested as of Tuesday morning.
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