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Ind. police probe highway sniper attacks CHARLES WILSON, Associated Press | July 24 2006 SEYMOUR, Ind. - Investigators scoured
hundreds of miles of roadside for clues and put out a national alert
after sniper attacks on two pickup trucks on Interstate 65 killed one
person and wounded another. Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin said authorities are considering the shootings to be linked "until proven otherwise." There were no immediate suspects or witnesses, and Goodin said investigators were gathering ballistics evidence Sunday to determine what weapons were used. "We're keeping an open mind," Goodin said. "Wherever they're from, we're going to go after them." Indiana State Police asked local, state and federal law enforcement agencies across the country to let them know of any similar shootings. Meanwhile, they asked businesses along the interstate to retain any surveillance video recorded in the past 24 hours. Gov. Mitch Daniels placed the National Guard and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security on standby, ordering both to help state police in any manner necessary. Police identified the man who was killed as Jerry L. Ross, 40, of New Albany. He was a passenger in the first shooting, reported at about 12:20 a.m. Sunday about 50 miles south of Indianapolis. As state police were investigating, the Seymour Police Department received a call from a gas station just off I-65 reporting a second shooting. The driver of the second pickup, Brandon Bonnesen of Anita, Iowa, said he and Robert John Otto Hartl, 25, of Audubon, Iowa, were driving to Florida for construction work when he heard a loud noise. "I cussed a little bit and looked at my friend. He was all bent over and I said 'You all right?" He said 'I'm OK, keep going,'" Bonnesen said. The bullet had grazed Hartl's head near his left ear, Bonnesen said. He was treated at a local hospital and released. Police closed a 14-mile stretch of I-65 for eight hours after the Seymour shootings. The highway is part of the only direct route between Chicago and Florida and is heavily traveled at all hours, Goodin said. Goodin asked motorists who had been through the Seymour area during the past week to check their vehicles for bullet holes. Electronic highway signs around the state flashed a message to motorists: "Report suspicious overpass activities - call police." In late 2003 and early 2004, a sniper in the Columbus, Ohio, area killed one person in a series of random highway shootings. Charles McCoy Jr., arrested in March 2004, was sentenced to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty. ---------------------------------------------------
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