A small army of law enforcement officers in tactical gear and dozens of cruisers and emergency response vehicles flooded to the station, in an area that includes a minor league baseball stadium and a variety of commercial establishments and restaurants.
Najee Wilson, 18, of Newark, New Jersey, said his bus was pulling up to the station when he heard three gunshots and saw people running out of the building.
“We heard a lot of people screaming,” Wilson said. “It definitely was a scary experience.”
Wilson, who was en route to Atlanta, was among about 200 travelers waiting to board buses at a staging area set up a few blocks from the bus station after the shooting.
Leigha Schilling, who was between stops on her bus trip from New York to South Carolina, said she was smoking a cigarette outside the station.
She went back inside briefly and saw people lying on the ground and what appeared to be blood on the floor.
A security guard ordered her to get on the floor, but she ran back outside, and then heard several shots, she said. “I was terrified,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”
City Councilwoman Reva Trammell called it “the saddest day in the city of Richmond.”
“State troopers doing their job and innocent people shot,” she said. “Why? This was a senseless act.”
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe echoed her sentiments in a statement: “This is a loss that impacts us all. It should inspire prayers for the family, friends and fellow troopers who are mourning tonight, and gratitude for those who protect and serve.”
About 50 officers from the Richmond Police Department went to the bus station to assist state police, Chief Alfred Durham said.
He said law enforcement officers have become the target of “folks out there with evil intentions.”
“It’s unfortunate these are the days we’re living in, where folks want to harm law enforcement,” Durham said. “We just want our officers to end their shifts and to go home to their families.”
Greyhound issued a statement Thursday afternoon saying the Richmond bus station would be closed “until further notice.”
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Alan Suderman and Steve Szkotak in Richmond and Kasey Jones in Baltimore contributed to this report.
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