Did texting Durham Public Schools bus driver help ‘coordinate’ shooting at student?
Durham police are investigating whether a former Durham Public Schools bus driver was involved in a May shooting that targeted a 17-year-old student getting off a Northern High School bus, according to court documents.
A recently released search warrant states that police have been investigating a bus driver’s role in the May 29 incident. The bus driver hasn’t been charged, according to court documents.
The driver hasn’t been charged “because investigators can’t confirm that he was involved in this incident in any way,” wrote Kammie Michael, a spokesperson for the Durham Police Department.
On May 29, police responded to reported gunshots near Dearborn Drive and Cannada Avenue. Police spoke to a woman who lives on Cannada Avenue and said her home had been shot at, the warrant states.
The woman told police that her 17-year-old son was the target, the warrant states.
When the 17-year-old got off the school bus, “unknown males were hiding nearby and began to shoot at him,” the warrant states. The teen ran and wasn’t injured.
The woman told police that her son believed the driver of the Northern High School bus was involved, the warrant states. Durham Police Investigator M.P. Strickland reviewed surveillance footage from the bus, which shows the driver texting up until the point in which the 17-year-old exits the bus, the warrant states.
Driver ‘constantly texting’
The driver “was constantly texting someone throughout the route which is against the law and DPS policy,” the warrant states.
The investigator believes the driver “helped coordinate the assault,” states the warrant that sought the driver’s digital data from his phone.
The employee was fired the day after the shooting, Durham Public Schools spokesperson Janet DelPinal wrote in an email. The man was a substitute driver who has been on the substitute bus driver list since Sept. 5. His termination letter says he didn’t report the shooting, and he was observed using his phone and driving, which is against the system’s policy.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 2:01 PM.