Bus service reconsiders routes
A bus caught in the middle of a turf war shoot-out Monday had bullet holes in two of its windows.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR PENNSYLVANIA BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — The bus service that had one of its vehicles caught in the crossfire of a turf war shoot-out earlier this week is re-evaluating where it provides service.
“We want feedback from the police. We have only one person that goes into that area,” said Tom Scott, chief operating officer of Lawrence County Community Action Partnership, the agency that oversees the Allied Community Services buses.
A bus driver and an aide transporting three mentally challenged pupils got caught in the crossfire at 3:30 p.m. Monday as three men shot at a man driving a black car on Lincoln Avenue in New Castle.
No one was hit, but there were bullet holes in two windows of the bus.
The man driving the car and another person had been shot at earlier in the day on South Jefferson Street.
They told police it was because of a turf war between people from New Castle and people from Mississippi at the Lincoln Terrace public housing complex.
One man has been arrested, and there is an arrest warrant out for a second man. A third has yet to be identified, according to police.
Security increased
Gene DiGennaro, acting executive director of the Lawrence County Housing Authority, said security has been beefed up at Lincoln Terrace.
City and state police conducted a saturation patrol of the area Wednesday.
“It shook up things pretty well,” DiGennaro said. Police did not make any arrests, but did issue traffic citations and written warnings.
He added that the authority security has been vigilant about checking for identification of anyone on authority property. Those without proper resident identification are given defiant trespass citations.
Shaken up
DiGennaro noted that none of those identified in the shooting so far — victims or suspects — were residents of Lincoln Terrace.
He said, however, the one victim is known to visit Lincoln Terrace with people from Mississippi.
Scott said the bus driver was seriously shaken up from the shooting and is taking time off. The woman was initially taken to the hospital with chest pains, but did not suffer a heart attack. She is taking time off to recuperate, he said.
Scott said his organization, which also runs the local Head Start program and has other transportation in and out of all of the public housing complexes on a regular basis, has never had a problem in public housing.
“These individuals were apparently chasing each other all over town. Our bus just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Scott said.
cioffi@vindy.com