School bus driver shot, killed in West Pullman

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A school bus driver was shot and killed while leaving his home in the West Pullman neighborhood to go to work.

Anthony Bowers, 61, was shot in the head around 6 a.m. Thursday near 120th and Michigan, police said. The death of the Army veteran is devastating to his relatives.

"I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss him so much," said Vivian Bowers, his mother.

"He was just a good person. There was no reason for this to happen. None whatsoever," said Veronica Bowers, his sister.

Bowers was killed as he was getting into the car his mother had given to him as a gift last week because she feared for his safety when he used to wait for a CTA bus early in the morning.

"Every day when he would get home from work, he called me and said, 'Mom, I'm in the house.' I said, 'Praise the lord, thank you, Jesus,'" his mother said.

Bowers' relatives say he was a school bus driver for close to a decade and worked as an extra in TV shows and movies. Though he had no children of his own, they say Bowers cared deeply for the students he drove to school.

"He just loved life. He just really loved life. And it's really ridiculous that some person would come up and just shoot him in the back of the head for no reason," his sister said.

Police have no one in custody. Bowers' relatives said they've been told by police that investigators are looking at surveillance video in the area.