Woman charged with murder in deadly shooting of SEPTA bus driver
21-year-old Zhontay Capers has been charged with murder after SEPTA bus driver shot to death
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- SEPTA reached a tentative agreement with the Transport Workers Union on Friday to avert a strike.
Both sides have been negotiating since July.
The new deal comes just a day after a bus driver was killed while on the job Thursday.
A tribute is now on full display, honoring the life of 48-year-old Bernard Gribbin from Abington, Pennsylvania. The 12-year employee of the transit authority and a U.S. Army veteran was driving a Route 23 bus Thursday when he was shot and killed in Philadelphia's Germantown.
Plain-clothed SEPTA police stopped a woman matching the description of the person believed to have pulled the trigger at Greene Street and Queen Avenue. Chopper 6 was above as police took the woman into custody. However, a weapon was not recovered and a motive is still not yet known.
Zhontay Capers, 21, has been charged with murder, as well as other related offenses, Philadelphia police said Friday.
There were no other passengers that were struck by the gunfire and no other injuries were reported.
Safety has been a big concern for other transit workers who are still coming to terms with what happened.
SEPTA's staff and leadership are shaken by this.
"Just really no words. When I think of the worst thing that could happen to our SEPTA team, this is it. This is the absolute worst," said SEPTA CEO Leslie Richards.
"We're all aware of how dangerous it is to be a driver here. We're with this family 100%," added Pat Deon, a SEPTA board chairman.
A big question is, what happens now? SEPTA has said the transit system has hired more police and has strong incoming recruiting classes, but is limited financially.
It remains to be seen how funding will be allocated to other areas of concern, such as raises and benefits, if SEPTA ends up shifting more money toward safety.
The president of SEPTA's largest union, Transport Worker Union 234, said they've asked the governor to bring in the National Guard. Action News spoke with him during a break from contract negotiations earlier this week before the fatal shooting.
"We are at the point where we need National Guard here," said Brian Pollitt, president of TWU 234. "I've been with SEPTA for 33 years and I've never seen it this bad. The raping, the assaults, the robbery, the maliciousness that's going on our El's, our subways and our buses. It's atrocious."
SEPTA installed Plexiglas partitions around drivers during the pandemic after requests. Now, some are asking for bulletproof glass to be installed for protection.
