Man who shot at SEPTA bus in July arrested, authorities say

Police arrested a man who shot at the windshield of a SEPTA bus and harassed its driver in North Philadelphia, officials said Wednesday.

Heriberto Acevedo Jr., 32, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, possession of an instrument of a crime, making terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, and several firearms offenses in connection with the events of July 14.

Acevedo is accused of threatening a SEPTA Route 57 bus driver just before 6 a.m. after he was asked to pay his $2.50 fare and refused, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

After arguing with the driver, Acevedo got off the bus near Front and Luzerne Streets and fired a handgun once at the bus’ windshield, authorities said.

Neither the driver nor any of the five passengers on the bus was injured.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said at a news conference that Acevedo’s arrest could be credited to one of the 30,000 “high-quality” cameras SEPTA operates between its buses and its stations.

Investigators were able to identify Acevedo’s image from previous arrests, Krasner said.

SEPTA CEO Leslie S. Richards said she was grateful that the bus operator was unharmed, and reminded riders that the agency had increased its police presence on trains after a handful of recent violent crimes.

“We hope this is a warning to anyone who thinks they can commit a crime on SEPTA — we are watching,” Richards said.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after police arrested a man in connection with the stabbing of another man in the neck on the Market-Frankford Line in Old City in July, the result of an altercation that left the victim in the hospital with injuries.

After two men were injured and one teenager was killed in separate shootings on SEPTA buses in May, the agency announced in June that it would add 21 transit police officers to its lines. Those additions were focused on the Market-Frankford and Broad Street subway lines, areas a spokesperson said attract high volumes of ridership and quality-of-life violations.

Acevado’s arrest, while lauded by the agency, follows a string of crashes involving SEPTA’s buses and other vehicles that killed one person and injured 25 others in separate accidents over one week in late July.

In the most recent crash, a Route G bus ran into another Route G bus, which was stopped at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at 15th Street and Oregon Avenue.

Andrew Busch, a spokesperson for SEPTA, said three passengers from each bus reported minor injuries.

The driver of an SUV that crashed into a SEPTA bus and several other vehicles in Havertown on Tuesday was experiencing a diabetic emergency, police announced Wednesday. Four people, including the driver of the SUV, suffered non-life-threatening injuries on West Chester Pike at Eagle Road, police said.

A collision Sunday involved an off-duty SEPTA employee who was allegedly intoxicated when she crashed her vehicle into a SEPTA trolley in Philadelphia’s Kingsessing neighborhood.

Addressing riders’ safety concerns, Richards said she’d spent the morning in meetings with staff holding discussions about safety within the agency. Richards said every agency employee would be undergoing safety training, and that management planned to reach out to bus operators, mechanics, and maintenance workers to hear their concerns.

SEPTA has also been in contact with PennDOT, which oversees the agency’s safety operations, and the Federal Transit Administration, according to Richards.