Wednesday 21 November 2012

Miami Bus Shooting

Miami Bus Shooting, A 13-year-old girl was tragically shot to death in front of her younger sister and seven other children while riding a school bus Miami-Dade Police said today.

The girl, whose identity has not been released was flown to Miami Children's Hospital after reportedly receiving a wound to her neck where she later died. She was a student at the Palm Glades Preparatory Academy charter school.

Police have said a male student has been taken into custody but authorities did not release his name or age and said they are still interviewing him. A gun was also recovered at the scene in Homestead, south of Miami.'We still don't know what the motive may have been,' said police spokesman Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.

Eight other children, including the victim's 7-year-old sister, were on the bus but were not harmed. Authorities took the children and the bus driver to a police station to be interviewed.The shooting happened right after the intersection of Southwest 296 Street and 137 Avenue, around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday.

'Officers responded and that's when they discovered that there was a 13-year-old girl suffering from a gunshot wound,' said Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta.
'They were immediately able to determine that the subject or the shots came within the bus and he was able to be detained and taken into custody.'

Concerned parents gathered at the scene, which was cordoned off by crime scene tape as authorities combed the bus for evidence and gathered children's backpacks and belongings.
'Thank God, none of the other children, approximately eight of them, they were not hurt,' said Zabaleta.

Authorities add that all of the parents of the children involved in the shooting had been notified.
'If you have not received a phone call from any of the investigators, you're child is not involved in this incident, your child is safe,' said Zabaleta.

Zabaleta also reassured parents of the schools involved that no further incidents was expected.
'We made contact with all of the schools, everything is fine and none of them have been placed on shut down, so everything is OK, no need for panic,' he said.
Grief counselors have spent the morning at charter school, said Lynn Norman-Teck, a spokeswoman for Florida Consortium of Public Charter Schools.
The school principal also walked through every classroom Tuesday morning to make sure the students were safe.
A phone message left for the private school bus company was not immediately returned.

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