By Seamus McGraw
July 24, 2006
SEYMOUR, Ind. (Crime Library) — The governor has ordered the National Guard on standby, federal authorities and police departments across the nation have been notified, and investigators from Indiana are scouring hundreds of miles of highway searching for the clues in the hunt for at least one sniper who launched at least two attacks on busy Interstate 65, killing one man and wounding another.
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| Interstate 65 Sign |
The Sunday morning shootings along the busy interstate — the main highway between Chicago and Florida — has rekindled fears among motorists and authorities that have been dormant since the arrest in 2004 of Charles McCoy Jr., who had allegedly waged a year-long campaign of terror on an Ohio highways. McCoy later pleaded guilty to 18 shootings, including one that fatally wounded a 62-year-old woman and was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
The latest round of shootings in Indiana began shortly before 12:30 Sunday when the sniper or snipers fired at two pickup trucks heading south on the interstate just outside Seymour. A passenger in the first truck was killed. Authorities have identified the victim as 40-year-old Jerry Ross of New Albany, IN.
According to First Sgt. Dave Bursten, a spokesman for the Indiana State Police, the driver of the pickup truck continued south to a nearby weigh station where he summoned police. About seven minutes later, as authorities converged on the weigh station, local police got a second call, this on from the driver of the second truck. In that that case, a sniper had apparently sent a round crashing into the cab, grazing a passenger. The passenger was treated and released from a local hospital.
Two hours later, and 50 miles away on at Interstate 69 near Red Key, two more shootings occurred. About 2:30 a.m., a tractor-trailer driver reported that at least one round had been fired at his rig, and an hour later, shots were fired at a vehicle that had been parked at the roadside.
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