A Minneapolis school bus driver was shot in the head Wednesday afternoon, but is expected to survive.
Three children under the age of 10 were on the bus at the time, KSTP-TV reported. Police dropped them off at their homes.
Video from the incident shows the unnamed driver being taken away in an ambulance while police blocked off part of the residential street where the shooting occurred. Photos from the scene show a bullet hole on the driver's side of the vehicle. Police are still investigating the details of the incident and have not yet taken any suspects into custody.
The driver was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, according to KSTP.
Officers aided the driver until the paramedics arrived, according to a report by WCCO-TV.
The number of gunshot victims in Minnesota increased by 90 percent from 2020 to 2021, PBS reported. Homicides specifically rose from 22 to 40 percent as well. The state's firearm mortality rate was much lower than other U.S. states in 2019, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, at about 8.1 percent for every 100,000 people.
A bullet can damage flesh and organs in two ways—from the direct blow and from the resulting shock waves that make it "ping pong around inside" the body, MedicineNet reported. While someone surviving a shot to the head is possible, "it's the luck of the draw as to how much damage the body can absorb and still function," the report said.
"For some lucky people, if the bullet velocity is high and there is no side to side movement (wobble) and it passes through non-critical parts of the brain, less damage occurs and survival is possible," the MedicineNet report continued.
Minneapolis police are currently the subject of public scrutiny following last week's shooting of 22-year-old Black man Amir Locke while officers were carrying out a no-knock warrant. Hundreds of protesters took to the city's streets over the weekend holding "Justice for Amir Rice" signs, Newsweek previously reported.
In addition to Locke's death, Minneapolis has been the site of several high-profile shootings in the past, including the 2021 shooting of Daunte Wright and the 2017 shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond.
The driver's shooting was also not the only instance of life-threatening danger on a school bus Wednesday. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, police arrested a shooting suspect after a chase ended in the suspect crashing into a school bus, PennLive reported. A police spokesperson said all the students got off the bus safely in this situation as well.
Update 02/09/22 5:55 p.m. ET: This story was updated to add more information.
