Sacramento man makes first court appearance after California shooting on Greyhound bus
The Sacramento man accused of shooting five people inside a Greyhound bus in Northern California, including a mother who was killed shielding her children, made his first court appearance Wednesday.
Asaahdi Elijah Coleman, 21, has been charged with one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder in connection with the mass shooting last week outside an Oroville gas station, according to Butte Superior Court records. Each criminal charge includes an enhancement for allegedly using a gun, which could lengthen his prison sentence if convicted.
Court records show Coleman also faces charges of being a felon in possession of a gun and being a previous ward in juvenile court in possession of a gun. Judge Corie Caraway on Wednesday morning postponed Coleman’s arraignment and scheduled him to return to court March 2.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Coleman will likely enter a plea during the March hearing, the Chico Enterprise-Record reported. The court appointed defense lawyer Robert Marshall to represent Coleman, but Sacramento defense attorney Linda Parisi could be hired to represent Coleman. Parisi has represented Coleman in two Sacramento County cases.
Karin Dalton, 43, of Seattle was shot and killed inside the Los Angeles-bound Greyhound bus that had parked outside an AM-PM store in Oroville the night of Feb. 2.
Dalton’s family told The Sacramento Bee that Dalton suffered multiple wounds in the shooting as she tried to protect her children. Her 11-year-old daughter was struck by one bullet and grazed by two others. She was expected to recover. Dalton’s 14-year-old son also was on the bus, but he was not struck by gunfire.
Dalton and her two children boarded the Greyhound bus Tuesday in Spokane, Washington. They were on their way to visit her eldest son in New Mexico, before they would continue their trip to Alabama. Her family was moving there, and they decided it would be more affordable to travel by bus.
A 25-year-old pregnant woman and a 32-year-old man were seriously injured in the bus shooting, and a 38-year-old man suffered minor injuries, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said last week.
On Wednesday, Ramsey said the pregnant woman continued to recover and was expected to be hospitalized for the remainder of her pregnancy, according to the Enterprise-Record. He said the man seriously injured continued to receive medical treatment.
Deputies, police and other law enforcement officers took Coleman into custody at a nearby Walmart in Oroville, where authorities said he had fought with a man and stripped off his clothes.
Honea said victims on the bus described Coleman as acting erratically and “paranoid” from the time he boarded in Redding. At one point, he showed passengers a 9mm handgun he was carrying in a small bag, which he allegedly fired at passengers as the bus made its regular stop in Oroville.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 4:14 PM.
