Sniper’s Attack on School Bus Kills High School Girl, Wounds Another

A sniper hit a school bus near this Cape Cod town Saturday, killing one high school basketball player and slightly injuring another, authorities said. A car was also hit by the gunfire.

Police searched the woods bordering state Route 25, but there were no arrests. No one in the car was injured. State police initially reported that two cars were struck by gunfire but later said that was incorrect.

State Trooper Deborah Bruce said authorities did not believe the shootings were accidental because more than one vehicle was hit.

The bus was carrying 13 girls from a New Bedford High School freshman basketball team to a game at Falmouth, Mass., New Bedford Supt. Constantine Nanopoulos said. Police incorrectly reported at first that there were 14 girls on the team.

Also on the bus were the team’s coach and two women acting as chaperones, including the slain girl’s mother, authorities said.

The girls learned that their teammate died after arriving back at the school.

“The girls were pretty well shook up,” Nanopoulos said. “They were crying. It was very obvious they were very stunned. They were a very close-knit group. Some of the girls had been playing basketball quite a while together.”

The bus was near Bourne, located about 50 miles south of Boston on the western edge of Cape Cod, when the shooting occurred.

Fourteen-year-old Robyn Dabrowski was hit in the chest. She was taken to Tobey Hospital in Wareham, Mass., where she died, hospital officials said. Her mother, Jo-Ann, was on the bus, Nanopoulos said by telephone from New Bedford.

The second girl, 14-year-old Susan Arruda, received a minor injury when she was grazed by the same bullet that killed her teammate, Nanopoulos said. She was treated at the scene.

“All I heard was an explosive sound,” said Elmer Wassall, the bus driver. “The girl just clutched her chest and collapsed.”

State Police Capt. Donald Cody said the gunshots appeared to be a “deliberate firing.”