WASHINGTON — The shuttle bus driver charged with fatally shooting a co-worker last week on the grounds of the former Walter Reed Medical Center told police he was defending himself during a violent attack that bloodied his mouth and knocked out some of his teeth.
But 59-year-old Wright Koonce also told police he shot 45-year-old Brian Andre Gibson multiple times as the younger man had his back turned and was running away, according to a police affidavit.
Koonce, who has addresses in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Falls Church, Virginia, has been charged with second-degree murder while armed in Gibson’s death.
Police said Koonce and Gibson were both shuttle bus drivers for G & M Limo Service. They were responsible for picking up construction workers from a parking lot at the former Walter Reed site on Georgia Avenue early each morning and transporting them to a construction site on Military Road in Northwest D.C.
On the morning of Dec. 8, Koonce and Gibson got into some kind of argument about transporting the workers, according to the court documents. Both men called another co-worker to report problems. Koonce, who called the co-worker at about 6 a.m., said Gibson “was trying to be his boss and he didn’t like it.” An hour and half later, Koonce called the co-worker back. “He’s dead,” he reported. “He (Brian) hit me and broke my teeth and I shot him,'” the court documents stated.
Koonce told police after a verbal argument he went back to his SUV and was sitting in the driver’s seat when Gibson knocked on his window. The younger man “threatened to beat his ass,” he said, then suddenly opened the door and began to beat him “so badly his teeth dislodged from his gums,” according to the documents.
Koonce told police he feared for his life when he pulled out a .38 S+P from the rear pocket of the passenger seat, according to the documents. But by that point, Gibson was running away. Koonce fired as Gibson “fled with his back to him,” the documents stated.
Koonce said he watched Gibson collapse, then he stood over his body and fired again, the documents stated. Afterward, he said he went back to his truck and reloaded his revolver, but decided against returning to the body because Gibson was no longer moving.
Police said they recovered a total of five casings from a .38 S+P near Koonce’s SUV. When police arrived shortly after 8 a.m. Friday, Gibson was lying about seven feet away from the SUV’s rear bumper, surrounded by a large pool of blood. Gibson had been shot multiple times in the head, once in the body and once in the left ankle, police said.
Koonce was first taken to Washington Hospital Center for the treatment of his injuries before he consented to being interviewed by police. He was not under arrest at the time he was questioned, police said.
According to the documents, Koonce told police he shot his co-worker even though he was fleeing “because he did not know what the decedent was going to do.”
After the shooting, a witness in the guard booth at the entrance to the former Walter Reed campus told police Koonce approached with a bloody mouth, said he had been in an altercation and needed help. “I shot him,” he said, according to the witness. Then, Koonce stood by and silently waited for police to arrive.
