Man Shoots Passenger to Death on MTA Bus

A young man was gunned down on a bus in southwest Los Angeles in an apparently gang-related slaying Monday as 20 fellow passengers watched in horror, police said.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Sergio Robleto said the killing--committed in the style of a street gang “hit”--occurred in broad daylight about 1 p.m. as Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus 207 traveled north on Western Avenue.

As the bus approached 89th Street, he said, a young man boarded and started up the aisle. When he spotted the victim, who was already on the bus, the killer “just got up, walked toward the victim and opened fire, shooting several times,” Robleto said.

Then the gunman stepped off the bus and into a white Volkswagen Cabriolet waiting in traffic nearby, he said.

The assailant, who is being sought by police, was described as an African American man in his mid-20s wearing a green, long-sleeved shirt and blue pants.

The victim, a man in his 20s whose name was not released pending notification of his family, had no time to either speak or run, the lieutenant added. However, the behavior of the killer and the manner of the slaying lead police to believe it was gang-related, he said.

No other passengers were threatened by the gunman, Robleto said, adding that the attack “was very much directed at one individual. . . . It was more a ‘hit’ type of thing.”

Nonetheless, he said, the gunfire caused panic among the people on the bus, who stampeded for the exits, trampling one woman in the rush for safety.

That woman was taken to Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, where she was treated for minor injuries and released.

Police dispatched crisis teams to reassure the frightened passengers, Robleto said.