Scary Bus Shooting Caught On Tape: Philly Bus Stopped. Rear Door Opened. And Gunman Opened Fire!

"For Lefenus Pickett, what began as a routine ride
home on SEPTA's Route 47 bus became a near-death
experience June 18 when a woman who took offense
at his parenting advice called friends who strafed
the loaded bus with semiautomatic weapons fire in
North Philadelphia.

A Philadelphia courtroom was riveted today as
Pickett narrated a video made by seven cameras on
the bus that showed two men, brandishing a handgun
and an rifle, taking aim at Pickett who then jumps
over his seat and runs with other passenger to the
front as bullets fly through the bus windows.

"At first I froze for a minute as I stood up,"
testified Pickett about the moment when he saw the
men outside on Seventh Street at Cecil B. Mooore
Avenue aim their weapons at him through the bus'
rear door. "But when I saw them actually shooting,
I was just trying to move toward the front of the
bus."

The video, and Pickett's testimony, became the key
evidence at the preliminary hearing for six people
charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and
related charges for the assault that early
Saturday evening.

At the end of the hearing, Municipal Court Judge
James M. DeLeon ordered four of the six held for
trial including Penny Chapman, 20, the young
mother who allegedly took offense when Pickett
chastized her for spanking her young son.

Also held were brothers Karon and Raheem
Patterson, the alleged gunmen who fired 13 shots
at the bus - remarkably not hitting a single
passenger - Angel Lecourt, the brother of the
father of Chapman's son, to whom Chapman pointed
out Pickett and told him: "I want you to shoot
that [racial slur].""