COLUMBUS, Ohio – The day after the chief investigator said authorities were closing in on a serial highway shooter, a man stood in plain view on an overpass and fired a handgun at cars below. He then walked to his car and slipped into traffic.
Ballistics testing has confirmed that the Saturday morning shooting was the 24th in a series in the Columbus area, investigators said Sunday. No one was injured in that shooting.
The bullet recovered from the battery of a sport utility vehicle struck on Interstate 70 matches eight others recovered during the investigation, including the one that killed a woman in November, according to a release. The others have been linked by factors including location and circumstances.
Experts said the shooter is becoming bolder after evading capture for three months, when authorities first established a pattern in the shootings.
”He’s sending a message to police: ‘You’re not as close as you think you are. I can shoot in broad daylight, and you still won’t find me,”’ said Jack Levin, a criminologist and director of the Brudnick Center on Violence at Northeastern University.
On Friday, Franklin County Chief Deputy Steve Martin said he felt confident in the investigation’s progress.