Man charged in shooting that critically injured Missouri bus driver
By DAN GREENWALD
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NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Missouri (KMOV) — A man is facing multiple charges after a Metro bus driver was injured in a shooting.
Thursday morning, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s office announced charges against Isiah Houston. The 30-year-old is facing 17 charges after being accused of shooting at two Metro buses Friday night, critically injuring bus driver Jonathan Cobb. The buses were carrying evening commuters at the time.
The Probable Cause statement reads that Houston was driving a maroon PT Cruiser on North Hanley Road at Airport Road in Berkeley when he shot at a Metro bus around 7 a.m. on Dec. 3. One passenger was injured by glass in the incident.
Shortly after, Houston drove the maroon PT Cruiser to the 3400 block of Lucas and Hunt and fired once again at a Metro bus, court documents allege. One of the bullets hit Cobb, 33, who was driving the bus. The bus then crashed into a utility pole. Cobb was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Nobody else on the bus was injured.
The Major Case Squad was activated to investigate the shooting of Cobb. During the investigation, detectives uncovered surveillance video from each of the incidents, which captured a maroon PT Cruiser without a license plate at both scenes.
Monday night, police spotted a very similar car in North City and chased it to the intersection of Jennings Station and Greyling. Houston was taken into custody. The 30-year-old was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of resisting arrest for that incident. He was charged with 12 counts of assault, three counts of armed criminal action and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.
Lt. Tim Burger with the Major Case Squad said nearly 20 detectives worked on the shooting case. “We’ve handled literally dozens upon dozens of leads. But we just need the public’s help a little bit more to get this crime solved,” he said.
In a Monday afternoon press conference, family members said Cobb is a dedicated bus driver and father of twins. Keylla Johnson, his girlfriend, said their twins will be 2-years old soon. “He is a great person. He’s an outstanding person All he likes to do is just to make sure his family is happy,” she said.
Cobb is also a recording artist who performs under the name J Traxx. Brian Johnson, with Untouchable Records, is a friend and fellow recording artist and producer.
“He’s a very good piano player. He just has so many talents, his energy has always been great. He went on tour with us a couple of times, performed on shows. We did multiple records together at producing,” said Johnson.
J Traxx produced a music video for one of his releases called Summer Time.
Metro later released the following statement:
“We are deeply saddened that on Friday evening, one of our MetroBus operators was a victim of senseless gun violence. Tragically, our operator was critically wounded while on duty, serving the community on the #64 Lucas Hunt MetroBus.
We are grieving this unexplainable event and ask the region to pray for the operator and their family. We also ask the public to recognize our heroic workforce who are understandably shaken by this event. Metro operators are true public servants and their bravery in the face of the ills of our region is courageous. They deserve much better than this.
The St. Louis Major Case Squad is handling this investigation, however we can say that our operator was struck by a bullet fired from outside the bus and did not involve any of our patrons. We are fully cooperating with the Major Case Squad, and are providing video resources and any assistance necessary to support their efforts to bring those responsible for this senseless tragedy to justice.”
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