One man killed, three others injured
By Bay City News
Gloria Guihuiz, 57, called 911 on Monday from the Laidlaw Transit bus yard in San Jose. She reported in a panic that there was a shooting. Then things went silent as the sounds of shots being fired rang out in the background. When she got back on the line, Guihuiz told the dispatcher she had been hit.
The second caller, 47-year-old Patty Lucia, was also hit by gunfire. Both victims had locked themselves in offices at the bus yard at Remillard Court and Story Road, while the shooting continued both inside and outside the main building.
The rampage, perpetrated by Filipino American Cathline Repunte, left one driver dead and three other workers wounded. Repunte, a driver with the company, is accused of fatally shooting bus driver Randy Rigdon, Sr., and wounding Guihuiz, Lucia and a third woman, Carrie Walter, 51. Repunte, who was apprehended by police minutes after the shooting, is arraigned on charges of homicide and attempted homicide.
San Jose police have been interviewing witnesses. Police department spokesman Rubens Dalaison said the victims were other drivers and dispatchers at the bus yard, who arrived for work shortly after 6 a.m. Repunte surrendered without incident when police arrived at the bus yard, and is in custody, Dalaison said.
A colleague of the 36-year-old suspect described the Filipino woman as quiet and did not have any possible explanation for the alleged shooting. Others said Repunte, who drove kindergartners to school, tended to keep to herself.
Sgt. Steve Dixon praised his colleagues for responding to the incident so quickly.
“Officers arrived on the scene within 15 seconds of the call being dispatched,” he said.
Guihuiz and Lucia, who stayed on the line with the 911 operators, helped officers locate the suspect, giving descriptions of Repunte and attempting to explain, from their positions on the office floor, where she was headed.
“One thing people need to realize is that when you’re in a crisis situation like that, it seems like it’s taking forever [for a response],” Dixon said. “But we had her in custody within five minutes. It was actually pretty incredible.”
A civilian is being lauded as a hero as well, Dixon said. Bus driver Gregory Alan Lee, once aware of the shooting, somehow got the suspect to drop her weapon and had her in a bear hug when officers arrived.
Responding officers, who had heard there may have been a second shooter, were not sure of the circumstances when they arrived. When the officers came upon Repunte in the grasp of the much larger Lee, Dixon said “they thought she might have been the victim.” |
