Shots Fired at Greyhound Bus

A Greyhound bus in Connecticut was hit by sniper fire yesterday and the chair of the strike-crippled bus line offered a $25,000 reward for information about a weekend shooting in Florida that injured eight passengers.

"We will not bend or move because of intimidation and violence," Greyhound Chair Fred G. Currey insisted before boarding a Greyhound bus from Jacksonville to Orlando, Florida.

No one was injured in the Connecticut shooting, which occurred on Interstate 84 shortly before 11 a.m. as a New York-to-Boston Greyhound bus headed into Hartford with 19 passengers. Passengers reported hearing a small pop that some thought was a blown tire.

Police recovered a bullet from the baggage compartment on the driver's side and were trying to determine the caliber and type of gun used, said state police spokesman Adam Berluti.

The Amalgamated Council of Greyhound Local Unions disavowed responsibility for the Florida shooting, but a union spokesperson in Hartford said he believed the Connecticut shooting was motivated by the strike against the only nationwide bus company.

"I would say it's probably strike-related because I have been driving for 17 years and was never shot at," said Charles True. However, pickets in Hartford denied that union members were responsible.

The union, which represents 6,300 drivers and more than 3,000 office and maintenance workers, went on strike March 2. There have been scattered violent incidents since, including a striker crushed to death by a bus operated by a replacement driver in Redding, California, and shots fired at buses in Chicago and Phoenix.

Currey, Greyhound's chair and chief executive officer, and Frank Schmeider, its president, flew to Jacksonville early yesterday from Dallas after learning of the Florida shooting.

The eight passengers were hurt when someone fired a bullet through the front of a Greyhound bus Sunday night in south Jacksonville. The passengers were injured by fiberglass and shrapnel.

When asked if he thought the shot had come from a striker, Currey said: "I pray that it is not true. I hope that it is not true. I do not want to believe that anybody involved in Greyhound would do such as thing."