A female passenger shot and killed the driver of a Route 23 SEPTA bus, 48-year-old Bernard Gribbin, in the Wayne Junction section of Germantown shortly before noon on Thursday morning. 

According to police, 21-year-old Zhontay Capers pulled out a gun and shot Gribbin as she exited the bus on the 4600 block of East Abbotsford Ave., and then repeatedly re-entered and exited the bus, firing a shot at him each time. When the shooting started, passengers frantically scrambled to get out of the bus side windows as well as the emergency exits.

Capers has been charged with murder and related offenses. 

14th district officers responded to the call on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 10:27 a.m., leading them to the corner of Germantown Avenue and East Abbottsford Avenue, where they found the victim unresponsive in the driver’s seat, with six gunshot wounds to the torso and throat. 

Gribbin was transported to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 10:36 a.m. No other passengers were struck by gunfire and no other injuries were reported.

A surveillance camera at a nearby store captured video of the incident, and based upon that information, SEPTA police apprehended the suspect at the corner of Greene Street and Queen Lane shortly before noon.

Gribbin, from Abington, was a 12-year employee of the transit authority and a U.S. Army veteran.

It is currently unknown what the motive of the shooting was. SEPTA says this is the first time a worker has ever been shot and killed on the job.