Report: Armed Juvenile Seen At Serial Shooting Location

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Several juveniles, including one with a firearm, were seen at the time of one of 12 shootings connected to the serial shootings in the Interstate 270 area south of Columbus, NewsChannel 4 reported.

A horse trailer was shot Aug. 31 along Interstate 71 South in Columbus. According to an Ohio State Highway Patrol incident report, the driver of the vehicle noticed several juveniles on a bridge. One of the juveniles allegedly had a firearm and shot a hole through the roof of the horse trailer the driver was towing, the report said.

The damage, however, was not discovered until Sept. 20 and was reported to police on Nov. 28.

The shooting incident is one of 12 that authorities believe are connected. It is not one of four that have been positively connected by ballistic evidence.

Me too, smith. Me too. I was going to wait until this was confirmed to post it, but....

Authorities test another bullet, car
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Bruce Cadwallader , Geoff Dutton and John Futty
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

NEAL C . LAURON | DISPATCH
Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms search school grounds with dogs for shell casings from a Nov. 11 shooting incident.

Authorities investigating the south Outerbelt shootings confirmed yesterday that they’re testing another bullet and have been given information about an additional car shooting.

So far, a task force has said 12 shootings along I-270 in southern Franklin County appear to be related and that four have been linked to the same gun.

Now, authorities are trying to find out whether a shot that hit a car on Sunday means the gunman has opened fire for the first time since Nov. 25, when a woman was fatally shot as she rode in a car on the Outerbelt.

Columbus police said yesterday that a Hilliard woman called them Tuesday evening to say her car had been fired at as she drove along the south Outerbelt Sunday morning.

The woman told police she heard a noise as she drove between 9 and 10 a.m. but thought she was having a tire problem. She drove home and noticed damage to her car but said she was unaware of the shootings and didn’t file a report.

It was only after co-workers urged her to report the incident that the woman called police, who confirmed the damage as caused by a bullet; no bullet has been recovered.

"It appeared to be a bullet strike, but the bullet did not penetrate," Columbus homicide detective Wayne Goss said.

The information has been handed over to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the task force.

Also yesterday, Chief Deputy Steve Martin said ballistics tests are being done on a fifth bullet. He wouldn’t say whether it’s from one of the 12 incidents already reported.

One of the four bullets linked to the same gunman struck and killed Gail Knisley on Nov. 25 as she rode from her home in Washington Court House to shop in Columbus.

Authorities yesterday downplayed reports of at least two UPS trucks being struck by something on the highway, saying they did not recover any fragments to prove a shooting.

"We haven’t ruled out anything yet," Martin said, declining to comment further.

Experts on serial crimes said their opinions about the person or people responsible for the highway shootings weren’t altered by news that investigators have linked the gunman to a shot fired through a window at Hamilton Central Elementary School on Nov. 11.

That shooting occurred in the middle of the night when no one was in the building.

"The school shooting was probably an impulsive decision," said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University in Boston. "It was not intended to shoot anybody. He may have been practicing his aim."

A retired FBI profiler said shooting at cars or schools would fit the pattern of someone seeking attention.

"These individuals are very inadequate people venting their hostility toward society," said Robert K. Ressler, whose experiences inspired works of fiction such as Silence of the Lambs.

"They try to create tension or disruption in society and they get great satisfaction out of all the attention they generate," he said.

Ressler said the acts probably are the work of a lone gunman who lives in the area.

"A person like this does not travel far," he said. "He’s probably right in the center of it."

The shootings were linked after Knisley was killed. Her death led to the discovery of other vehicle shootings along a 5-mile stretch of I-270, near Rt. 23 and I-71. Most of the shootings were in October and November, but they stretch back to May.

Before Knisley’s death, there had been no injuries, so authorities — Columbus police, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the State Highway Patrol and Obetz police — hadn’t linked them.

Investigators thought they had a possible lead yesterday afternoon, but it fell through.

A team of law-enforcement officers, including agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and deputies converged on an apartment complex along I-270, just west of Gantz Road, after a resident reported hearing gunshots.

Authorities initially took a man into custody but later said he appeared to be a homeless man who lived in the woods and was unconnected to the shootings.

Investigators also examined a house that was fired at on Lisle Avenue in Obetz.

But Sgt. Dennis Verbance of the sheriff’s office said it was unrelated to the sniper.

In addition, a shooting on the Ohio Turnpike about 30 miles southwest of Cleveland on Tuesday night appears to have no link to the I-270 shootings, a spokesman for the State Highway Patrol said.

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