"For Lefenus Pickett, what began as a routine ride home on SEPTA's Route 47 bus became a near-death experience June 18 when a woman who took offense at his parenting advice called friends who strafed the loaded bus with semiautomatic weapons fire in North Philadelphia. A Philadelphia courtroom was riveted today as Pickett narrated a video made by seven cameras on the bus that showed two men, brandishing a handgun and an rifle, taking aim at Pickett who then jumps over his seat and runs with other passenger to the front as bullets fly through the bus windows. "At first I froze for a minute as I stood up," testified Pickett about the moment when he saw the men outside on Seventh Street at Cecil B. Mooore Avenue aim their weapons at him through the bus' rear door. "But when I saw them actually shooting, I was just trying to move toward the front of the bus." The video, and Pickett's testimony, became the key evidence at the preliminary hearing for six people charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and related charges for the assault that early Saturday evening. At the end of the hearing, Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon ordered four of the six held for trial including Penny Chapman, 20, the young mother who allegedly took offense when Pickett chastized her for spanking her young son. Also held were brothers Karon and Raheem Patterson, the alleged gunmen who fired 13 shots at the bus - remarkably not hitting a single passenger - Angel Lecourt, the brother of the father of Chapman's son, to whom Chapman pointed out Pickett and told him: "I want you to shoot that [racial slur].""
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