Laquita Anderson’s 12-year-old special needs son gets off the school bus every day no later then 2:47 p.m.
When her son, who has autism, wasn’t home by 2:55 p.m. Monday, a frantic Anderson began making calls and eventually rushed to Minnie Miñoso Academy in Brideport after the school called her to report “an accident on the bus.”
“I’m thinking like one of the buses had hit another because it happened before,” Anderson, 53, told the Sun-Times. “But as I’m getting out the car and walking up to the school, the principal comes down saying … ‘We have it all under control, there’s been a shooting on the bus.'”
Anderson, whose daughter was shot in July, spent several moments terrified, not immediately knowing if her son was okay.
“I can’t take no more bad news,” Anderson said while recounting the minutes of uncertainty before reuniting with her son. “This is very frustrating to me.”
Anderson’s son was one of three special needs students on a bus in the 3500 block of South Wallace Street during dismissal at Minnie Miñoso Academy, 3527 S. Wallace St, when a 12-year-old boy found a bag allegedly belonging to 22-year-old bus aide Steven Dixon Jr., removed a firearm that was inside and fired a shot, Chicago police said.
A bus driver was inside the vehicle at the time when the shot was fired and took the gun away from the boy, according to police reports obtained by the Sun-Times.
Police reports note that when Dixon Jr., who stepped away from the bus for unknown reasons, returned to the bus he asked “what happened?”
“You brought a gun?” the driver demanded, according to the report.
Dixon then allegedly grabbed the gun and bookbag from the bus driver and fled north, authorities said. No injuries were reported but the gunfire shattered the bus window.
Police eventually caught up with Dixon Jr., of Chicago’s South Side, and he was charged with a felony count of possessing or carrying a firearm on school property and misdemeanor counts of child endangerment and reckless conduct, police said.
“As long as that’s something he didn’t intend to do, I can accept those charges,” Anderson said of Dixon. “I’m glad no one got killed, thank God Almighty.”
Dixon Jr. was expected to appear in court Wednesday.
A detective told Anderson that her son was sitting in front of the child who shot the gun and “would’ve been killed” had he been struck, she says.
Now, Anderson says her boy is suffering after effects.
“He scared to get on the bus. He didn’t go to sleep at all last night,” Anderson said. “That’s stressing me out … trying to control a person who has autism and a diabetic.”
Anderson hopes for better communication from the bus company and metal detectors to ensure anyone who boards a school bus isn’t carrying a weapon.
Chicago Public Schools and the listed bus service haven’t immediately provided comment when reached out to by the Sun-Times.