Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Sniper fire kills 1 on Indiana highway

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 24, 2006

SEYMOUR, Ind. - Sniper attacks targeted two pickups early Sunday on a busy highway, killing one person and wounding a second, and police asked other motorists who had been through the area to check their vehicles for bullet holes.

Hours later, two more vehicles were struck by bullets on another four-lane highway about 100 miles away, but there was no immediate indication if the two cases were connected, police said.

One shot struck a southbound pickup on Interstate 65 shortly after midnight, killing Jerry L. Ross, 40, of New Albany, police said. At about the same time, a bullet grazed the head of Robert John Otto Hartl, 25, of Audubon, Iowa, in another southbound pickup on the same highway, which is part of the only direct route between Chicago and Florida. Police closed a 14-mile stretch of I-65 for eight hours.

"The Indiana State Police will treat these incidents as being connected until proven otherwise," Sgt. Jerry Goodin said. "We're literally scouring hundreds of miles of crime scene."

Police were left only with questions, unsure whether more than one sniper was involved, how many shots were fired or where the shooters could be headed.

About two hours later, bullets struck a tractor-trailer on Interstate 69 near Muncie, about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis, state police said. Later, a parked, unattended sport utility vehicle was struck in the same area. No one was injured.

[Last modified July 24, 2006, 01:44:27]