Timeline: Ohio Highway Shootings

Published January 14, 2015

Authorities have arrested a suspect in their investigation of 23 shootings in a series of highway sniper attacks. Many of the victims first called law enforcement agencies after hearing of a fatal shooting on Nov. 25:

May 10:

— A 37-year-old woman runs out of gas around 4 a.m. in the westbound lanes of I-270 east of I-71. After walking for help, she returns to find the car's windshield shot out and the hood damaged.

Aug. 31:

— A 41-year-old woman from Akron finds a bullet hole in the back of her horse trailer hours after driving on eastbound I-270.

Oct. 10:

— A woman driving north on U.S. 23 north of I-270 had a flat tire. She didn't know the tire had been shot until she took the flat to be repaired.

Oct. 11:

— A 36-year-old man was driving about noon along I-270 when a bullet struck the rear side panel of his Nissan Sentra and exited through the rear window, shattering it.

Oct. 19:

— Truck driver William Briggs, 56, of Hilliard, turned north onto westbound I-270 off of U.S. 23 at about 11:30 p.m. and had driven about a mile when the driver's side window exploded.

Nov. 11:

— A bullet breaks a window at 1:35 a.m. at Hamilton Central Elementary in Obetz, about 3/4 of a mile from the freeway.

Nov. 15:

— A passer-by notices a bullet hole in a van parked at a used car lot on U.S. 23, just over a mile north of I-270.

Nov. 17:

— A United Parcel Service truck was eastbound on I-270 around 11 a.m. between Parsons Avenue and U.S. 23 when the driver reported hearing a noise. A bullet hole was found in the door behind the driver's seat.

Nov. 18:

— A woman is driving a Ford Explorer around 9:30 p.m. on U.S. 23, north of Rathmell Road when a bullet strikes the driver's side door.

Nov. 21:

— Edward Cable, 53, a retired prison guard from Lucasville, reports bullet fired into his minivan about 7:40 p.m. on U.S. 23 south of Rathmell, 1.5 miles from I-270.

Nov. 25:

— Gail Knisley, 62, of Washington Court House, is killed about 10 a.m. on I-270 near I-71 when a bullet rips through the driver's door of the Pontiac Grand Am driven by a friend.

— Four hours later, near the same spot, a GMC Jimmy driven by a 26-year-old man from Orient, just south of Columbus, is struck near the left rear fender.

— A tractor-trailer driver for Coca-Cola Co. reports finding a hole in the rear door of the trailer after making deliveries along I-270 between 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Nov. 30:

— Phylis Cramer said she was driving on I-270 eastbound between I-71 and U.S. 23 when she heard a thud sometime between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. She noticed a bullet hole when she arrived home.

Nov. 30-Dec. 1:

— Emma Fader reported that between 11 p.m. Nov. 30 and 3:30 p.m. Dec. 1 someone shot the front of her house at 1798 Lisle Ave. near I-270. She found a bullet hole in her living room floor.

Dec. 15:

— Ronald Edwards, 48, heard three shots about 12:30 a.m. at his house on 901 Brown Road, about two miles north of I-270. A bullet was found in a bathtub, and two bullet holes are found in the front of the house.

Dec. 15-17:

—A South-Western city school bus was shot on Brown Road near Ransburg Avenue at about 4:20 p.m.

Dec. 17:

—A second South-Western bus was shot about 7 a.m.

Jan. 11:

—A man reported a bullet struck the hood of his car about 2:15 a.m. while driving on the stretch of I-270. Bullet fragments were found in the hood, and the car's windshield was cracked.

Jan. 22:

— Michael Thomas, 30, reported that a shot that cracked his windshield about 12:45 a.m. on I-71 came from a highway overpass. He said he saw a person standing in the shadows in front of a parked car on the overpass.

Feb. 3:

— A bullet pierced the windshield of a van about 2:10 p.m. while traveling on I-71 about 15 miles south of I-270. A bullet fragment from the dashboard was a ballistic match.

Feb. 8:

— A van and a Mercedes were shot within minutes about a mile apart from overpasses on Interstate 71 in Jeffersonville, about 40 miles south of Columbus. Douglas Berry, the driver of the Mercedes, described the gunman as a middle-aged white male, with a medium build. Another motorist described seeing a black sports car on an overpass when the shootings happened about 11:30 a.m.

March 15:

— Ohio authorities issue a warrant for the arrest of Charles A. McCoy Jr. (search), a 28-year-old Columbus man. The warrant was connected to a Dec. 15 shooting that left a bullet in the bathtub of a south Columbus home — a bullet matched by lab tests with eight other shootings. The other highway shootings had been linked by location and circumstance. A bulletin to police departments said McCoy was believed to have mental health problems, a semiautomatic pistol and ammunition.

March 17:

— McCoy Jr. was arrested in Las Vegas, at the Budget Suites motel near the Stardust casino. Police were told of McCoy's whereabouts by a person who recognized him from media reports linking him to the string of the Ohio highway shootings.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/story/timeline-ohio-highway-shootings