'I had to settle a beef': Terrified passengers flee as gunman opens fire on crowded New York bus and kills two
- Police: Killer shot 18-year-old man in apartment before jumping aboard bus and killing another
- One other victim in stable condition
A gunman slayed a man in an apartment before jumping aboard a crowded city bus and opening fire and fatally wounding another.
Police in Queens, New York have arrested the 20-year-old suspected shooter, who told them: 'I had to settle a beef.'
Witnesses described the scene as 'pandemonium', as one injured man fell from the bus and scores of terrified passengers fled.
Frightening: A gunman in Queens, New York shot a teenager dead in an apartment before jumping aboard a bus and shooting two others - one fatally
The man shot his first victim in the neck in a second-story apartment in Jamaica, Queens.
The wounded 18-year-old then jumped from a window and fell to the ground below, police said.
He managed to stumble to the nearby Royal Chicken restaurant, where workers called emergency services – but he died before reaching hospital.
The shooter had fled the scene, running to a nearby bus stop and jumping on a northbound Q111 bus around 4 p.m.
Officers responding to the 911 call went to the apartment and found an ID the gunman had accidentally dropped, police said.
On the bus, the gunman began arguing with passengers and pulled out a 9mm Luger semi-automatic pistol.
He began firing and hit two men. One died on the bus.
The other, a 29-year-old man shot in the face, managed to escape while terrified fellow passengers fled.
Search: The police have cordoned off the road while investigations continue
Crime scene: Police search for bullet casings in a nearby sewer drain.The gunman began arguing with bus passengers before opening fire and killing one
He later was taken to Jamaica Hospital, where he was in stable condition, authorities said.
'The male gets on the bus and shoots two people,' Detective Martin Speechley said. 'We now have the shooter under arrest.'
Witnesses described the terrifying scenes as around 50 passengers fled the bus.
‘It was crazy. I saw people running from the bus,’ Shakeem Twitty, who was playing drums on sidewalk when he heard shots, told the New York Post.
Kevin Livingston, a manager at a nearby bank, added: ‘I saw cops running, so I came out and I saw a young man with a red coat lying on the ground.
'He was conscious, couldn’t have been more than 20. There were cops and people running everywhere.
Blocked: The crime scene stretched for blocks in Queens, New York. The 20-year-old shooter has been arrested and is being questioned, police said
‘I’m sick of it. I’m tired of seeing young black men dead of on the side of the road.’
Another witness told the New York Post: ‘It was pandemonium. I heard a shot and people started running over this way.’
Police caught the shooter and found the pistol on him.
When they asked him for a motive, the man allegedly said: ‘I had to settle a beef.'
The gunman is being questioned.
Ali Nasrey, a 27-year-old worker at Royal Chicken, said co-workers told him that the gunman was a stepfather ‘who shot his kid’.
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