Bullet hits Blake High bus carrying student athletes

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Last night was likely terrifying for some Hillsborough County students on their way home from a baseball game.

After their game at Middleton High School ran late, the Blake High School baseball team boarded the Hillsborough County school bus to head home. As the bus left around 10:30 p.m., gunfire struck the bus.

No one was hurt after the bullet pierced the side of the bus and the driver took the students straight back to Blake, where Tampa police were called to investigate.

“I was just a kid scared at the sight of a gun. I didn't even know that it was a gun. Just to be on a bus being shot at amazes me that I could have been dead,” explained a member of the Blake High School baseball team, who was so scared by the situation he didn't want FOX 13 News to identify him. “All I heard was a loud noise hit the back of the bus and I was like, ‘whoa, what was going on?’”

District officials said the bus had just left the school, turning on to 22nd street, when the bullet hit. There were about 10 students and staff inside.

“It's very scary, when you hear something like that, and particularly when it's an occupied bus when there are students and coaches and our bus driver on the bus,” Tanya Arja with Hillsborough County Schools said.

It's unclear whether the bullet was recovered. Tampa police met the bus back at Blake to begin their investigation.

Meanwhile, students are still shaken, but thankful they walked away unharmed.

“I just gotta thank the man above for just giving me life and let me share in another day, because who knows? It could have been a friend of mine. It could have been me,” the student said.

Tampa police say they aren't sure if the bus was the intended target for the bullet.