The man suspected of fatally shooting an MTA bus driver in West Hollywood on Sunday is in custody today.
Anthony Craig Chambers, 41, of Los Angeles was arrested at the scene of the crime on Sunday morning. Today, he was booked on suspicion of murder. He is being held at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Twin Tower facility on $1 million bail.
Chambers is accused of fatally shooting Alan Thomas, the 51-year-old bus driver who has worked for MTA for five years.
Chambers was detained after he was seen climbing out of the window of the Metro bus on Santa Monica Boulevard at West Knoll Drive (near the Koo Koo Roo) following the fatal shooting at 9:09 a.m. Sunday.
Reports say Chambers tried to flee but surrendered to Sheriff’s Deputies quickly. Two guns were found on the bus
Thomas died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 9:30 a.m. Sunday
Metro spokesman Rick Jager said Thomas had been driving a Route 105 bus east on Santa Monica Boulevard when he was shot by a passenger. Route 105 runs from West Hollywood south on La Cienega Boulevard, and then east on Vernon Avenue.
Thomas had just begun his route, coming from the MTA bus yard at Santa Monica Boulevard and San Vicente Boulevard, a half mile away from the intersection where the shooting occurred.
Reports say that no one else was on the bus.
City News Service contributed to this article.
May God Be With You Alan Thomas!
For one we do not know what happened since we were not there. Second, the most extreme cases of provocation (of which I have seen MANY on the #4) I see on buses are from the drivers themselves. Some of them are just plain awful. No, this man did not deserve to get shot at work but we have to understand that there might be other things involved, and Metro NEEDS to retrain their drivers for safety AND customer service.