Passenger Shot, Killed Along Freeway (7th shooting)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A woman was shot and killed Tuesday morning while riding in a car with her friend along Interstate 270.

The shooting took place around 10 a.m. along the eastbound lanes of I-270, between state Route 62 and U.S. 23.

According to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, a bullet entered the driver's side door of the car and struck Gail Knisley, of Washington Court House. The driver, Mary Cox, was not hurt. Knisley died at Grant Medical Center at about 10:45 a.m.

"I can't see anything I don't even see a bullet hole," Cox told the 911 operator.

Family members said Cox had just picked up Knisley in Canal Winchester. They were headed for a day of shopping in Easton, but while driving along I-270, they both heard a "bang, like a balloon." Kinsley then slumped over in the front seat, NewsChannel 4's Jesse Abdenour reported.

"We were just traveling, talking," Cox told a 911 operator. "We haven't been together for a while."

Knisley and Cox grew up together, according to family members. Cox's son said the women had not seen each other for about a month.

Police planes, helicopters and canine crews were searching the woods north of I-270 for possible suspects, Abdenour reported.

The shooting was the third in the past week in that area, NewsChannel 4's Holly Hollingsworth reported. On Wednesday, a car was hit by a bullet while driving on U.S. Route 23, just south of I-270. Two days earlier, another vehicle was hit by a bullet while driving on I-270 between Parsons Avenue and Route 23. A woman reported that a bullet struck her sport-utility vehicle on Wednesday. A bullet struck a UPS driver's truck two days earlier.

"I just went to the back of my truck, and there was a hole in the back of it," the driver said. "That's when we called police."

Additionally, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office confirmed that they have three additional reports of vehicles being struck by bullets -- two in October and one in May, Hollingsworth reported. No one was hurt in any of the incidents before Tuesday.

Woman shot to death on I-270

Police investigating series of shootings on South Outerbelt, including another last night

Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Bruce Cadwallader and Dean Narciso
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
A woman riding in a car was shot to death yesterday morning and a truck was shot last night, the latest in a series of reports of vehicles being struck by gunfire along a stretch of the South Outerbelt.

Gail Knisley, 62, of Washington Court House, Ohio, died in the morning shooting. Police had no suspects or motive. They plan to compare ballistics evidence in eight cases in which bullets have struck vehicles on or near I-270 on the South Side since May.

Knisley was killed about 10 a.m. when a bullet fired near the I-270 and I-71 exchange ripped through the driver’s door of the eastbound car in which she was riding. Knisley was sitting in the front passenger’s seat.

About 9 p.m., deputies responded to a report that a Pickaway County man’s truck had been hit by gunfire as he drove south on Rt. 23 near the South Outerbelt.

After Knisley’s death, an exhaustive search by land and by air didn’t turn up hunters or anyone with a gun in the area. Although gun season for deer doesn’t begin until Monday, deputies said outdoorsmen have frequented the area in the past in search of rabbits and birds.

Chief Deputy Steve Martin of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said he issued a statewide alert to other law officers to be on the lookout for similar shootings.

"But I’m not using the word ‘sniper’," Martin said. "We’re all working on this together — police, the patrol, BCI, everybody."

The reports of vehicles hit by gunfire were filed by different law-enforcement agencies and had not been coordinated until yesterday, Martin said. Five were investigated by the sheriff’s office, two by Columbus police and one by the State Highway Patrol. All have occurred since Oct. 11, except for one in May. No one else has been injured.

Knisley and the driver, her best friend, Mary Cox, 63, of Grove City, were talking when they heard a pop.

"What was that? What was that?" Knisley said before slumping forward, according to the recording of Cox’s 911 call.

Cox made the call on a cell phone after pulling over to the berm near the Rt. 23 exchange.

Martin would not speculate on the type of weapon that killed Knisley.

Sheriff Jim Karnes said he doubted the bullet was fired from another vehicle.

"The trajectory is wrong. It’s too low and was straight across. Maybe it was someone target practicing. We don’t know," Karnes said.

A hole the size of a quarter was noticeable on the driver’s side door of Cox’s 1993 Pontiac Grand Am.

A Columbus police supervisor confirmed he has ordered a homicide detective to begin searching police files for any similar reports.

The drivers in the vehicle shootings investigated by Columbus police have only vague memories of where or when the shootings occurred, Pilya said.

Police leadership yesterday directed Pilya and homicide detective Steve Eppert to review the shooting cases with sheriff’s investigators.

"Over the next few days, we’ll be meeting and brainstorming," Pilya said. "We have a few cases that are similiar in nature but we don’t know how similiar."

Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis said he will conduct an autopsy today to confirm Knisley’s cause of death. A slug lodged in her body may hold more clues.

The Cox and Knisley families, friends for more than 50 years, were consoling each other last night.

Yesterday was going to be a perfect day out for the two girlfriends: lunch and shopping after a stop at a doctor’s office. Then, a bullet ripped through their lives.

Before the 911 dispatcher could question Cox, she’s heard on the recording saying, "Oh, Gail, no."

Then Cox explained what happened.

"Somebody just shot. I’m in the car, and my girlfriend has been shot.

"Oh, please. I don’t know where the (shot) came through. I don’t see anything."

Sobbing, Cox says, "Oh dear God. We were going to have such a beautiful day."

Another pause, then she says, "I haven’t heard anything out of her for a couple of minutes. Oh, please help me. Oh, Gail, honey, please, oh please."

Cox later told members of her family that she had taken a wrong turn and was heading back toward Rt. 23 when the shooting occurred.

"My mom and her are good friends," said Michael Cox. "She was driving Gail to a doctor’s appointment and heard a sound like a balloon popping.

"She’s very upset this happened to her friend and she think’s it’s her fault."

Relatives said the bullet grazed the sleeve of Cox’s coat before striking Knisley.

Agents with the state Bureau of Identification and Investigation returned to the scene and shut down eastbound lanes of the freeway later in the day to take photographs and measurements.

"I just hope they find out what happened," Michael Cox said. "If it’s a random shot from a hunter, that’s all the more reason to keep them from hunting in this area."

Knisley was the mother of two adult sons and grandmother of two.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to call detectives with the sheriff’s office at 614-462-3333.

Dispatch reporter Jill Riepenhoff contributed to this story.

bcadwallader@dispatch.com

dnarciso@dispatch.com

Other drivers describe narrow escapes on I-270
Pair of truckers recall how routine deliveries turned into close calls
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Dean Narciso
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
On the road for 7½ hours, William Briggs was listening to a blues-guitar tape and enjoying the crisp Columbus night air.

The trip from Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 19 had been uneventful for the 56-year-old tractor-trailer driver.

But around 11 p.m., a blast of noise and glass left him gripping his steering wheel and reliving his days in Vietnam.

The driver’s side window of Briggs’ cab "just shattered and blew in on me," he said. Shards of glass littered his hair. Pieces cut his face.

"We were trained to drive through an ambush" in Vietnam, where he was a transportation officer nearly 40 years ago, he said. "I just floored it.

"I just let the old instincts kick in and I put the hammer down and just tried to get out of the immediate area."

Briggs had no idea a bullet had narrowly missed his head until he arrived at the Yellow Freight depot on Fisher Road.

"I was pissed off when I seen it was a bullet," Briggs recalled. "That some coward had taken a shot at me. I thought, ‘That late at night, there wouldn’t be any hunters out.’ "

The slug was found in the door, opposite from where he sat.

"It probably didn’t miss me by inches. I thought, ‘What kind of coward is doing this?’ " Briggs said last night while driving to the East Coast.

Law-enforcement officers are now investigating whether the shot fired at Briggs’ truck is connected to eight other shots fired at cars on the Outerbelt, including a fatal shooting yesterday.

Briggs said he’s glad to hear officials are taking the shootings seriously.

"I really believe we’ve got a situation going on."

A month after Briggs’ truck was hit, a 54-year-old driver for United Parcel Service was driving from an East Side distribution center toward Downtown when there was a jolt in his truck.

"All of a sudden I heard this noise hit. It sounded like a rattling in the back. It just shook my truck," said the driver who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he’s worried about his family’s safety.

The driver was on I-270 near Parsons Avenue just before dawn on Nov. 17 when the shot hit his truck.

He pulled off the interstate at Rt. 23, checked the outside, underside and numerous packages for damage.

It wasn’t until he was delivering Downtown that he unlatched the back doors and found a dime-size hole.

The bullet came within 18 inches of where he was sitting, he estimated.

Learning about the death of Gail Knisley yesterday, the driver counted his blessings.

"I have great faith about my life every day. Even after all this . . . you kind of pull together and think about your loved ones, because you never know what’s going to happen one day to the next."

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