Ted Wendling, The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Columbus, Ohio -- In what appears to be the first eyewitness account of the shootings south of here, an Akron woman has told state troopers that a juvenile standing on a bridge fired a bullet at her horse trailer on Aug. 31.
A report filed by Deanna Mains says she saw “several juveniles on a bridge” and watched one of them shoot a hole through the roof of her trailer.
Mains, 41, could not be reached yesterday, but the report says she didn’t discover the damage until Sept. 20. She didn’t report it until Friday, three days after Gail Knisley was shot and killed while traveling on Interstate 270.
Investigators have said the trailer shooting is one of 12 that are connected and have occurred on or near the South Outerbelt since May 10.
But State Highway Patrol Lt. Rick Fambro said yesterday that an earlier patrol report that the horse trailer shooting occurred on I-71 - in the vicinity of the other shootings - appears to be wrong.
He said a witness who was following Mains’ trailer recently told troopers that the shooting occurred on U.S. 33 between I-270 and I-70, several miles from the other shootings.
Franklin County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Steve Martin said bullets or fragments recovered at four of the shootings - including Knisley’s and a shooting at Hamilton Central Elementary School in Obetz on Nov. 11 - came from the same weapon.
He said the bullet recovered from the trailer shooting and turned over to authorities “was not linked to the other four” shootings, raising the possibility that the shooter has used more than one weapon.
Investigators have refused to discuss the weapon or the caliber of the five bullets that have been recovered. They also discounted a report filed by Obetz police that a detective on the village force turned over a .50-caliber bullet that was found embedded in a door jamb at the school.
The bullet had been fired through a front window of the school, tripping an alarm at 1:35 a.m.
Obetz Police Chief Rick Minerd said the village’s lone detective, Roger Hayes, identified the bullet as a .50-caliber round because it appeared to be larger than those fired by the department’s .40-caliber Heckler & Koch handguns.
Fifty-caliber bullets are sometimes used by deer hunters, but they are far less common than the smaller-bore bullets, such as the .22- and .30-calibers, favored by most shooters.
A half-inch in diameter, .50-caliber bullets are used in primitive muzzle-loading rifles and hunting pistols, and in long-range target rifles that use a .50-caliber Browning Machine Gun cartridge, said Rich Sittner, manager of B&T Shooting Supplies in Middleburg Heights.
“I have nothing to suggest he’s a weapons expert, but he’s been around guns for a long time,” Minerd said of Hayes. “I called Roger and asked him, ‘How good are you at identifying bullets?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m not an expert, but it looked like a .50. It looked bigger than what we carry.’ ”
Martin revealed yesterday that authorities consider it “unlikely, yet possible” that there will be another shooting. No confirmed shootings have occurred since Nov. 25 - the day Knisley, 62, was killed. Martin discounted a report filed by a woman that her car was hit by gunfire on Sunday.
With the investigation appearing to have stalled, Columbus investigators will get a visit next week from a commander in the Montgomery County Police Department in Rockville, Md. The department was the lead investigative agency in the D.C. sniper case.
“He’s going to be stopping by Columbus and offering any assistance that may be needed,” said Montgomery County officer Joyce Utter. She declined to identify the commander or discuss what advice Montgomery County authorities would offer.
One contrast between the two cases is that investigators in the D.C. sniper shootings quickly made public the fact that the shooter was using a .223-caliber rifle.
“We don’t want to be put in the position of second-guessing what Ohio is doing,” Utter said when asked about the contrasting strategies. “That’s not what we’re here to do. To say Montgomery County did this and Ohio’s not doing that - it doesn’t serve a purpose.”
Martin said authorities also are consulting FBI agents who investigated a series of shootings in which five hunters and fishermen in southeast Ohio were slain between 1989 and 1992. Thomas Lee Dillon, 53, was convicted in 1993 and is serving life in prison.
Martin also welcomed assistance volunteered by the American Trucking Association. The association has made automated phone calls to thousands of drivers enrolled in its Highway Watch Program to spread information about the shootings.
Otherwise, the association is not encouraging truckers to avoid the South Outerbelt.
“We’re not telling them to route to any other location,” said Larry Woolum, director of regulatory affairs for the Ohio Trucking Association. “You still have to travel the highways.”