A student was shot in the back of the head with a ball bearing gun as he sat on the top deck of a London bus.
Victor Cataraga, 19, was sitting in one of the front seats of the Route 25 bus in Manor Park when he was hit.
Police believe he was targeted because he was wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with “Police”, a fashion brand.
Mr Cataraga, a student at Waltham Forest College, was sitting on the bus at 1.43pm on Friday, November 11 last year when he felt a stinging pain in the back of his head.
He said: “It felt like someone had thrown a rock or a stone at me. I turned around and everyone was looking at me but no one was obviously suspicious. One guy was putting something away in a plastic bag but that was all.”
The student approached the driver, who called an ambulance. An X-ray revealed a metal pellet embedded in the back of his skull, which required surgery to remove.
Police say CCTV shows a man following the student onto the top deck, sitting two rows behind him and then pulling what appears to be a handgun from a bag and shooting at him.
Dc Teresa Moore said: “This was an awful assault on an unsuspecting victim. This man is a danger to the public and appears to have targeted the victim in the mistaken belief that he was a police officer.”
The suspect is described as black, of large build, bald and aged 30 to 40. He was wearing a stars-and-stripes T-shirt. Call Dc Moore on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 with any information.
