WATCH: Driver, Passenger Get Into Shootout on Charlotte Bus
‘I DARE YOU’
A bus driver and a passenger were both injured in an exchange of gunfire on a North Carolina city bus earlier this month, local transportation authorities said. The May 18 shooting began after the passenger asked to get off the bus between designated stops, according to a Charlotte Area Transit System news release. A verbal argument between driver and passenger escalated when the passenger, identified as Omarri Shariff Tobias, began taunting the driver. “I dare you to touch me,” he says in surveillance footage of the altercation. “I’m going to pop your ass.” He then pulls out a firearm. The driver, David Fullard, then reveals a gun of his own. A company spokesperson told CNN that both men fired their weapons “in rapid succession” as two other passengers on the bus scrambled for cover, though it is not clear who shot first. Both men suffered non-life-threatening bullet injuries in the incident. Tobias was charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injuries, communicating threats, and carrying a concealed firearm, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. It was not immediately clear if Fullard would be charged, but the transit system said that he had been fired.