One person died and multiple people were injured early Saturday in Santa Monica after a shooting occurred near the pier.
The shooting was reported just before 1 a.m. near Ocean Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, according to Sgt. Newton of the West Los Angeles Police Department. The cause of the gunfire was an altercation between passengers onboard two different buses parked along Ocean Avenue, said Santa Monica Police Department Lt. Saul Rodriguez.
After one of the buses parked at the location, "several occupants" got out and "got into an altercation" with several people who had also gotten off a second bus parked there, Rodriguez said. The altercation escalated when multiple suspects from the second bus fired into the first bus, striking three people inside and one person outside.
The area was populated with locals and tourists, who scattered after shots were fired, one witness told NBC4. The bus that was shot at drove to the Santa Monica Public Safety Facility, where Santa Monica Fire Department paramedics treated the three victims and transported them to a local hospital, Rodriguez said.
One of the victims, described only as female, died of her injuries. The other two victims remain in stable condition. The person shot outside the bus suffered "minor" injuries after being hit with bullet shrapnel and was not transported to a hospital, Rodriguez said.
The suspects, described as two or three black males, fled west through Palisades Park, jumping over a railing toward Pacific Coast Highway, Rodriguez said. All lanes on the westbound 10 Freeway to PCH have been closed as a result, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The Santa Monica Police Department is working with LAPD to find the gunman.
Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Leone at 310-458-8949, Detective Cooper at 310-458-8467, or the Santa Monica Police department at 310-458-8495.
