Moments before his shift as a Montgomery County (Md.) Ride On bus driver was about to begin, Conrad E. Johnson, 35, became the 13th victim, and the 10th to die, of the sniper that has terrorized the Washington, D.C. metro area since early October.
An assailant shot Johnson, a 10-year county employee, while Johnson was standing on the top steps of his county bus on Oct. 22. He is survived by a wife, two sons aged 7 and 15, and a large extended family. His father is also a longtime Ride On bus driver for the county.
“He was a loving human being, a strong family man,” Gino Renne, president of the county bus drivers union Local 1994 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, told The Washington Post. “Everybody knows him and loved him. He was just filled with life and goodness. It’s a huge loss, an absolute tragedy. Such a waste.”
A resident of nearby Prince George’s County, Md., Johnson was well liked by his co-workers and neighbors, and remembered as someone who had a ready smile and liked playing football with the neighborhood kids.
The shooting shook the Ride On community, and the county called in grief counselors while some employees called in sick out of concern for their safety.
According to Al Genetti, Montgomery County’s director of public works and transportation, the system rearranged work schedules but was still able to cover the evening shift on the day of the shooting.
“These are great professional people,” Genetti told The Post. “But whether you’re sitting in the seat of a bus or filling your car up, it’s not a fun time.”
Ride On is a commuter bus service in Montgomery County that began in 1975 as a “dial-a-ride” program with eight buses. Today the bus service has 326 buses that ferry passengers on about 70,000 trips each weekday.
