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Co-workers 'Distraught' After 63-Year-Old Bus Driver Fatally Shot Thursday

 Anthony Bowers, 63, was a
Anthony Bowers, 63, was a "good guy, very spiritual" and "very dedicated to his job," co-workers said.
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DNAinfo/Devlin Brown (file)

WEST PULLMAN — Co-workers of a 63-year-old bus driver who was fatally shot Thursday morning on his way to work are so “distraught” that they forgot to eat lunch, said the general manager.

Carshena Ross of Jewel's Bus Co. said that Anthony Bowers had worked there for 11 years, and the company had been expecting Bowers at work Thursday when his wife called to break the news.

“We are all really distraught and deeply saddened by this,” she said. “It comes as such a surprise and shock to us. Mr. Bowers was a very dedicated bus driver. He was very dependable and excellent at his job.”

Bowers was shot in his head and found unresponsive by police in the 12000 block of South Michigan Avenue at 6 a.m., according to Officer Ana Pacheco, Chicago Police Department spokeswoman.

He was pronounced dead on the scene, Pacheco said.

Ross said that Bower’s death doesn’t make sense.

“Everybody is trying to wrap their brain around what happened," she said. “It’s just senseless violence. He was a good guy, very spiritual, involved in church. Just very dedicated to this job.”

Etta Price has lived on the block for 40 years. She said she heard a gunshot Thursday morning.

“It was terrifying,” she said. “I’m upset.”

A longtime resident of the West Pullman neighborhood, Price knew many of her neighbors and said Bowers was “friendly,” greeting her when he saw her outside.

That was all the information she would give before the reality of what happened began to sink in.

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore; I just can’t,” she said.

No arrests have been made, police said.

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