By Anita Chang, The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Witness descriptions of a gunman and his vehicle after a pair of highway sniper shootings are the most detailed yet in the series of attacks south of Columbus, authorities said.
A van and a Mercedes car were hit minutes apart Sunday and witness descriptions of the apparent gunman on one overpass and a vehicle parked on another have offered investigators potential leads.
Franklin County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Steve Martin stopped short of linking the two latest cases to the serial gunfire. However, he said that based on initial evidence they seem consistent with the 21 shootings since May on or around Interstate 270. One person has been killed.
Douglas Berry, the driver of the Mercedes, described the gunman as a middle-aged white male, with a medium build. Another motorist called 911 Sunday, reporting a black sports car on an overpass.
“We’ve had some vague issues in the past, but this is by far probably the best,” Martin said.
No injuries were reported in Sunday’s shootings, which happened about 11:30 a.m. on Interstate 71 in Jeffersonville, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus and about 25 miles from any linked shootings.
Berry, 51, of Mansfield, said he was driving north on I-71 when he noticed a car pull to a stop on an overpass. “I saw him park his car, get out of it, walk to the rail and take his shot,” Berry told The Columbus Dispatch. “It sounded like a boom, a blast.”
There was no comment from the van driver, identified in a sheriff’s report as Cheryl Shreyer of Baltimore, in central Ohio. No one answered the door at her home Monday and she did not return calls seeking comment Sunday night.
Both vehicles were struck in the hood on the driver’s side, Martin said. At the rest stop about a mile from the shootings, a bullet hole was visible in the hood of the Mercedes, about six inches from its windshield.
A lane of I-71 northbound was closed for part of the afternoon as officers searched the area.
A driver on Interstate 71 called the Fayette County Sheriff’s emergency dispatcher Sunday and reported seeing a person standing next to a black car on an overpass, according to a recording released to the media.
“I don’t know. It looks like he just got out of the vehicle,” the caller said.
“It looks like a black sports car,” the caller later added.
One person has died in the serial shootings, which have targeted vehicles, homes and schools near the highway encircling Columbus. Most of the sniper shootings have occurred in an area of I-270 and I-71 on the south side of Columbus.