Suspect In Fatal Chicago Bus Shooting Identified As 16-Year-Old Boy; Police Suspect Gang Ties

Friday, May 11th 2007, 8:02 pm

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) _ A 16-year-old suspect identified from surveillance video on a city bus was sought Friday in the fatal shooting of a teenage passenger and the wounding of four others, police said.

Police said the violence was gang-related, though they think gunman was aiming at someone else when 16-year-old Blair Holt was killed Thursday afternoon. Witnesses reported that Holt was trying to shield a teenage girl from the gunfire when he was shot in the chest, according to police and an autopsy report.

Chicago Public Schools spokesman Malon Edwards said Holt did not belong to a gang.

An employee at Julian High School, where the victims attended, identified the suspect after looking at a ``very clear picture'' taken from video cameras on the bus, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.

She declined to release the suspect's identity, but said he was not a student at the victims' school.

Police declined to release the video.

The gunman boarded the bus, quickly opened fire, and fled, authorities said. Two boys and two girls were injured, Edwards said. Three were treated and released from the hospital and one was listed in fair condition Friday.

Holt's mother is a member of the Chicago Fire Department and his father is a Chicago police officer, Edwards said.

The principal of the school, William Harris, told the Chicago Tribune that Holt was a good student with a ``bright future'' who was taking physics and other college preparatory classes.

Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Arne Duncan went to the school Friday to talk with students about the shootings.

The school district also sent crisis support teams to the school and announced a $10,000 reward for the arrest and prosecution of the gunman, Edwards said.