A teenager shot and critically wounded another youth on a school bus headed to a high school for troubled students in West Philadelphia this morning, police said.
Police later arrested the 15-year-old suspect with a .25-caliber handgun nine blocks away.
The 17-year-old victim suffered a head wound that left him in critical but stable condition at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, as of early this afternoon.
Police said the shooting stemmed from an earlier confrontation, but would not elaborate.
Law enforcement sources said the gunman may have retaliated for an earlier incident of bullying.
The gunfire erupted in the back of the bus around 8 a.m. on Pine Street, near South 57th Street, a residential neighborhood of gabled rowhouses.
The shooter shoved a gun in the driver's face and jumped off the bus through the front door, fleeing toward 60th Street, officials said. Police later caught him at South 61st and Cedar Streets.
Officials at the scene originally said it appeared the victim had suffered only a graze wound, but it was determined after he arrived at the hospital that a bullet had entered his head behind the ear.
The bus was en route to Community Education Partners, a program for students with behavioral problems at 43d Street and Westminster Avenue in West Philadelphia.
About a dozen students were on the bus when the shooting erupted and half of them had left and walked to school by the time police arrived, officials said.
"The ease of these kids to get guns is something that troubles us on a daily basis," said Deputy Commissioner Kevin Bethel.
The suspect, not immediately identified because he is a juvenile, was taken for questioning at Southwest Detectives. Police also were interviewing the students who stayed with the bus.
Fernando Gaillard, spokesman for the School District, quoted bus system manager John Lombardi as saying he had never seen anything like this in 30 years.
Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.
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