Suspect Held in Slaying of Boy on Bus : Crime: A 13-year-old was shot while riding on a crowded RTD bus with his father.

Police late Sunday announced the arrest of a Los Angeles man in the slaying of a boy who was shot while riding a crowded RTD bus downtown Saturday.

Joel Darren Sanders, 21, turned himself in to authorities at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, after “apparently consulting with his family,” Los Angeles police Cmdr. William Booth said. Sanders was booked for investigation of murder, Booth said.

The dead boy, 13-year-old Angel Hernandez of Silver Lake, was the innocent victim of a man who had been harassing passengers on the bus, police said.

Witnesses told police the gunman boarded the bus on Broadway near 8th Street and immediately began spoiling for a fight.

During a three-block stretch, he harassed several of the estimated 75 passengers, police said.

After being ignored by riders at the front of the bus, the man made his way to the back, where young Hernandez sat with his father, Central Division Police Lt. Robert Kurth said.

“The father said something that got the man’s attention,” Kurth said. “It was just a few words--a phrase, maybe.”

The man pulled a gun and fired a single round, hitting the boy.

The gunman “bothered some people when he got on,” Kurth said, “but the bus was very crowded and there wasn’t a whole lot to draw attention to this individual until the shot was fired. By that time, people were just trying to get out of the way.”

“The shooting appears to have been totally random,” Kurth said. “I don’t know what it was the father said, or if the gunman said anything back. But I don’t think you could even call it an argument.”

The driver stopped the bus on 11th Street, opened the rear door, and the killer fled.

A short time later, police responded to a call about an incident in a nearby parking lot where the same gunman allegedly fired three rounds at a security guard. No one was injured.

An RTD driver, whose route crosses the area where the shooting took place, said drivers repeatedly have raised concerns about the need for security guards on the buses.

“Right after a shooting, the drivers bring the issue up with the labor union,” said the driver, a 15-year employee of the RTD who requested that his name not be published. He said the requests usually garner little response from management.

Members of the RTD’s police force monitor bus routes in patrol cars.