Man charged with school bus shooting
Prosecutors charged a 22-year-old man Friday in connection with a south Minneapolis shooting last week that almost injured students on a school bus.
Robert James Hampton has been charged with second-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm.
A school bus headed from Kenwood Elementary School to an after-school program was caught in the middle of the April 11 shooting.
The bus had stopped at a red light at the corner of 28th St. and Stevens Ave., a few blocks south of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in the Whittier neighborhood, at 2:30 p.m. when the shooting occurred.
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Police say they don't think the bus was the target, but one bullet went through the glass of the bus's front door and into a jacket owned by the bus driver. Police Sgt. William Palmer said somehow the driver was not struck.
"It actually lodged between her back and the seat she was sitting in, so I don't think you can get any closer without getting hit," Palmer said shortly after the incident.
Police have said they're troubled by the fact that the shooting happened in broad daylight on a corner that's usually fairly crowded at that time of day.
Hampton is being held at the Hennepin County Jail on $150,000 bail. His first court appearance is April 26.