Seattle school bus hit by air gun first mistaken for bullets

By Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) - A school bus arriving outside a Seattle elementary school on Thursday was struck by rounds fired by a BB gun initially mistaken for gunfire, prompting a lockdown of the school and a search for suspects, but no one was hurt, city police and school officials said. The bus driver heard loud noises, then saw that two windows in the vehicle and took shelter inside the school, Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Stacy Howard said. The bus had just pulled up to the school to pick up students for their afternoon ride home, and no children were on the bus at the time, she said. The Seattle Police Department later said the bus appeared to have been struck by BB rounds fired from an air gun, rather than actual bullets, though the incident remained under investigation. Police said they received eyewitness accounts of a man with a rifle running down the street near the bus and into a home, though officers were unable to find him. There also were unconfirmed reports of a group of teenagers playing in the area with a BB gun shortly before the bus was hit, police said. The shooting occurred shortly before 4 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, which has a student body of about 370 children in kindergarten through fifth grade, Howard said. The school was placed on lockdown, with all staff and students instructed to stay inside, as police arrived on the scene to secure the area and search for suspects, she said. The lockdown was lifted about two hours later. As a precaution, students and staff at another elementary school and a middle school in the vicinity were also ordered to "shelter in place," she said. Howard said police were helping students leave the school after the incident through a safe exit in order to meet other school buses or parents arriving to pick them up. (Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler)