Pregnant Woman Injured In Oroville Bus Shooting 'Doing Really Good' Says Ex-Husband
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Through the screen of a cell phone the ex-husband of the 25-year-old pregnant woman injured in a mass shooting on a Greyhound Bus in Oroville Wednesday night, watched and listened as she found safety in the nearby AMPM after being shot multiple times.
Rose Whitley, 25, was one of four people injured including two men and an 11 year-old girl. Karin Dalton, 43, was killed after her family said she used her body as a human shield to protect her 11-year-old daughter, who was also injured, and her 14-year-old son.
Whitley is six months pregnant with her third child, according to her ex-husband Brian Whitley, who said she was traveling from Washington to her hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada to attend a funeral. Most of her family still lives in Las Vegas and Brian said she just recently made plans to move back.
Brian told CBS13 the two talk often via Facetime and on Wednesday night it was no different. He said he had a "gut feeling that something wasn't right," and called her via Facetime while she was on the Greyhound Bus.
"She was listening to a guy behind her, because she paused for a second, and didn't respond to me," said Brian.
That person, Brian said, was suspect, Butte County Sheriff identified as 21-year-old Asaahdi Elijah Coleman, a Sacramento resident.
"She then informs me, she had texted it to me instead of saying it out loud, that he was talking to someone on the phone and told them to meet him... or be at the Sacramento bus station before him and to bring a lot of people and a lot of guns," said Brian.
Investigators say Coleman had boarded the bus, which was bound to Los Angeles, in Redding. The bus stopped in Red Bluff and Chico before stopping in Oroville. Passengers reported, a similar story to what Brian shared with CBS13, that Coleman appears to have made or received a phone call that made him agitated and, at some point, he reportedly showed people a firearm he had in his bag.
Brian said he remained on Facetime with Rose until paramedics arrived to the AMPM. From that call, he said he could see she had been shot in the leg and that her head had been grazed by a bullet.
Later, after she arrived to the hospital, Rose told him she had been shot three times: a bullet grazed her head, above the knee, and a third bullet entered her leg and "went up," according to Brian, which required a 7-hour surgery.
Less than a week later, Brian said Rose is "doing really good" and she is "thankful God gave her a second chance." She is still hospitalized but has been able to go outside for fresh air twice, according to Brian, and regularly speaks with friends and family on the phone to keep "her mind off of what happened," he added.