A father is dead, a child is in the hospital, and a school bus stop in Annapolis, Maryland, is now a crime scene soaked in grief and fear. Just because grown adults, parents, couldn’t resolve an argument without bullets flying.

Last Wednesday morning, 36-year-old John Simms Jr. and his wife walked his children to the bus stop, but he didn’t come home.

According to police, the altercation stemmed from an argument about bullying. Simms and his wife had confronted another couple the day before, trying to address what they believed was harassment of their child.

The next morning, that same couple allegedly showed up at the bus stop. The woman maced Simms, his wife, and their children. Then, her boyfriend, 31-year-old Roscoe Jerome Jones, pulled a gun and shot John Simms multiple times, in front of his kids, in front of their mother, in front of other children waiting for the bus.

Simms died at the scene. An 11-year-old boy, not even related, was shot in the foot. Because that’s what happens when you bring a gun to a bus stop.

Think about that for a second. Jones was allegedly so angry about his child being accused of bullying by another parent that he stewed about it for 24 hours. While in that time, the only solution he could come up with was murder.

What was his plan after shooting John Simms Jr. to death? Did Jones think that he could just walk away from scores of witnesses just because his fragile ego was bruised?

Let me say this louder for everyone in the back. How the hell do we expect children to learn to resolve conflict without gun violence when the adults in their lives are literally murdering each other over school bus drama?

We talk endlessly about stopping youth gun violence. We host roundtables, form task forces, run PSAs telling kids to “put the guns down.” But what does any of that mean when grown-ass men like Jones are pulling triggers at 7:40 in the damn morning, at a bus stop, in front of children?

What do we expect kids to absorb from that? That violence is the first and final answer. That whoever escalates faster wins. That words don’t solve problems, but weapons do.

Let’s be real. This isn’t about a bad apple or some heat of the moment lapse in judgment. This is a culture. A sickness. And it’s not just the kids, it’s the adults modeling this chaos like it’s normal behavior. Like a gun is just another tool for everyday disputes.

John Simms Jr.’s wife said it best, “My husband wasn’t armed at all… She maced me, my children… and her boyfriend shot and killed him.” She watched her husband bleed out in front of their children. Now she’s planning a funeral instead of an anniversary.

This wasn’t just a murder. This was a lesson in despair delivered to every child who witnessed it. Trauma on top of trauma. Kids walking to school in tears, their innocence riddled with bullet holes.

And yet, the shooter, is still at large. A man who thought it was okay to gun someone down in front of kids is just walking around somewhere. Armed, likely. Angry, definitely. And apparently invisible to the people who claim to keep our streets safe.

How many more stories like this do we need before we stop pretending the problem is just “those kids with the guns”? Because let me tell you, the kids are watching us. And when they see grown adults escalate common disputes into deadly shootouts, they’re not learning peace. They’re learning how to aim.

We failed John Simms. We failed his kids. We failed that 11-year-old boy shot in the foot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a place that should have been safe.

And until we start holding adults accountable for the violence they model, we’re just raising the next generation of shooters at the bus stop.

(Sources)

• Annapolis husband gunned down at school bus stop after bullying dispute turns deadly
• Suspect identified in shooting that killed man, injured 11-year-old near Annapolis bus stop

UPDATE 4/7/2025: Earlier today, Roscoe Jones was taken into custody in Washington, D.C. He has been charged with murder.

Not to make light of the situation, but you’d think that someone on the run for a crime committed in Annapolis, Maryland, he would have traveled much farther than D.C.