NEW BEDFORD — A Martha's Vineyard High School bus driver received a harsh welcome to the city Tuesday afternoon when his parked vehicle was pelted with more than 10 rounds from an air rifle.
"I was sitting here after I dropped the students off to play a lacrosse game against New Bedford High and I was taking a snooze when I started hearing things hitting the side of the bus," said the driver, Roy Hope.
The shots apparently originated from an apartment complex at the corner of Parker and Hunter streets.
Mr. Hope said he had settled in the front, passenger-side seat of his bus, which was parked in the lot of the old Keith Junior High School, when pellets began striking it.
"It was about four or five shots before I realized what was happening," he said.
One of those shots shattered the outer pane of a driver's side bus window, leaving it in a spider-web pattern with a small hole in the window. An inner pane stopped the pellet, but Mr. Hope was rattled.
"It was right beside me," he said. "If the window was open and it had hit me, it would have done some damage."
After Mr. Hope got his bearings, he said over and over he could hear the sound of an air gun firing, then the sound of a pellet striking the side of his bus. He estimated a total of about 10 to 15 shots were fired.
"I have an air rifle myself and I know what it sounds like," he said.
Because he assumed the weapon was an air rifle, he said he was more curious than worried about his safety. Mr. Hope exited the bus and the shots stopped. He said he believes the shots came from the apartment complex next to the old Keith parking lot, located about 100 yards from where his bus was parked.
"I don't think they realized I was inside," he said, citing the fact that a Barnstable school bus parked in front of his was not shot at. The operator of that bus was sitting in the driver's seat, clearly visible to anyone with the shooter's vantage point.
Mr. Hope made an emergency call, and police responded to the scene at about 4:30 p.m. The driver said he and police searched for the pellets that hit his bus, to no avail.
"We didn't find anything," he said.
The officers searched the apartment complex but found nothing, Mr. Hope said. Police would not comment on the investigation Tuesday night.
The Martha's Vineyard bus is one of three that the island school system keeps on the mainland. Mr. Hope, a Martha's Vineyard resident, said he has driven students to New Bedford three times before, and Tuesday's incident does not lower his opinion of the city.
Aside from the damaged window, he pointed out a chip in the bus' paint where a pellet had struck. He said he would drive his students home after their game ended.
"They probably won't even notice," he said.
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