Bullet hits bus; ball team is OK

The bullet left a hole in the window about 1.5 inches in diameter, but no one was hurt.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Brandy Harris was waiting for a call from her 14-year-old daughter to pick her up after a basketball scrimmage Tuesday night when the girl called with disturbing news.
"She said, 'Mom, someone shot at us on South Avenue. You have to come pick me up,'" Harris said.
Harris' daughter, Taylor Williams, was one of 14 members of the Liberty Lady Leopards varsity and junior varsity basketball teams whose bus was traveling along South Avenue about 6:45 p.m. when someone shot one of its windows.
"We heard 'Pop, pop, pop,'" said Barb McKimmy, a bus driver for more than seven years.
She immediately believed the bus had been shot.
"South Avenue is known for that kind of thing nowadays," the bus driver said.
One of the girls used a cell phone to call 911.
"The first thing I did was make sure everyone was OK," McKimmy said.
Other details
The shot left a hole about 1.5 inches in diameter and sent broken glass across to the other side of the bus, according to Larry Long, an assistant coach with the team.
Although a girl sat in the seat next to the window, no one was hurt, Long and McKimmy said.
"She was seated down low, and the glass went over their heads," Long said.
Both said that they didn't see anyone walking along the street before they heard the shots. The bus was traveling north on South Avenue, just south of the Interstate 680 on-ramp.
The team was returning from a scrimmage against the Cardinal Mooney Lady Cardinals.
Police are investigating.
Harris said that despite the initial panic of her daughter, Taylor Williams, the girl was OK.
"They're all smiling now, but I think it's going to be the aftershock that gets them," Harris said.
She was one of several parents pulling into a parking lot near where the bus had pulled over along South Avenue. The parents had all gotten frantic calls from their daughters.
"My heart is in my feet right now," Harris said.
Liberty school Superintendent Larry Prince could not be reached to comment.