The third suspect involved in a shooting that killed a MARTA bus driver in Decatur last week surrendered Monday night and was charged with murder, according to police.
Investigators now believe they have the alleged shooter, MARTA police said. All three suspects are juveniles and their names and ages were not released. But all three are charged as adults, police said.
An alleged dispute over the $2.50 fare led to Friday’s shooting at the Decatur station on Church Street that killed Leroy Ramos, a 47-year-old husband and father who was always willing to help others, his family says.
“Leroy Ramos wasn’t just a bus driver,” a GoFundMe fundraising page states. “He was a loving husband, a loving father, but overall, he was a kind-hearted person who came from humble beginnings, experienced all types of adversity at such a young age, and still prevailed.”
Investigators believe a dispute over the fare led to the 6:30 p.m. shooting, MARTA police spokesperson Payson Schwin said. Two other juveniles were arrested and charged with murder the same night, officials confirmed.
A bystander, who was injured when a bullet ricocheted, was taken to a hospital with a “superficial wound,” Schwin said.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732, a labor union in the U.S. and Canada, said Ramos was a father of two daughters and a son. Local 732 President Britt Dunams said in a news release that Ramos had recently moved from New York. MARTA hired Ramos in October, the transit company said.
“Our members should be able to go to work and come home safely each day,” Dunams said.
“This tragic incident happened over a fare dispute that resulted in us losing a life that was worth so much more than $2.50,” the family stated on the fundraising page. “Our family is enduring this senseless act of violence firsthand and mourns the loss of a soul that was precious and so priceless to us, 3 days into the new year.
“We allowed the stages of grief to sink in, and we are raging for a change, not for violence!”
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