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One dead, three wounded in shooting at school bus yard

The Associated Press
Tuesday April 24, 2001

SAN JOSE — A school bus driver opened fire on her co-workers at their bus yard early Monday, killing a man and wounding three women, police said. 

A co-worker subdued the shooter and held her until police arrived, ending the spree at the Laidlaw Education Services yard just before 6 a.m., police spokesman Rubens Dalaison said. 

“We’re considering him a hero,” Dalaison said.  

“He was able to disarm her and hold her until the police could get the handcuffs on her.” 

The suspect was identified as Cathline Repunte, 36, who had worked for Laidlaw for about six years and regularly drove high school students, said Ronn English, the company’s director of human resources for the West. Investigators had not determined the motive or where the handgun used in the attack came from. 

Sherry Reed-Price, a Laidlaw training supervisor, said she was not aware of any issues that could have upset the woman. 

Repunte didn’t appear to have been particularly close with her fellow drivers, but gave “no clues, no hint” of any problems, English said. She had passed the background checks and drug tests required of drivers, he said. 

“She just came in, she did her job, and she left,” English said. “Folks would say ‘Hi’ to her, she would wave or say ‘Hi’ back. She was always polite, pleasant. We didn’t have any problems with her.” 

Repunte lives in an apartment in a working-class section of San Jose, where several neighbors said they never talked to her.  

Her nearest neighbor, CeCe Baleros, said the woman had lived there about a year or two and they had never spoken. 

The man who was killed was a 48-year-old driver and trainer for Laidlaw who had worked there since 1997, English said. His name was being withheld while police notified his family. 

Dalaison said the man was killed outside the bus yard office.  

The three women who were wounded, ages 47, 51, and 57, all were expected to survive, though one underwent surgery for a gunshot to her abdomen. 

Two of the women were found in a barricaded office, Police Sgt. Steve Dixon said. Dispatchers who handled the 911 call could hear gunfire in the background, Dixon added. 

Dalaison said around 30 employees were in the bus yard or office, though not all witnessed the shooting. Police arrived just as Laidlaw employee Gregory Alan Lee subdued Repunte outside the building, Dalaison said. 

The shooting forced the bus yard to stay closed all day while police investigated.  

About 2,500 San Jose students were delayed from 30 minutes to two hours as buses owned by the school district and nearby districts had to fill in, said Rose Bedard-Carr, the district’s director of auxiliary services.