By ANDREW BUNCOMBE in Washington
Police believe they are closing in on a gunman who has plagued residents of the American mid-west with a series of highway shootings that left one person dead and terrorised thousands of others.
For almost a year, an unknown shooter has been taking shots at motorists across
four counties in central Ohio, triggering the same sort of panic that the Washington area snipers created in the nation's capital in 2002.
Now, after more than two dozen shootings, detectives have identified a troubled 28-year-old man who lives at home with his mother as their main suspect.
Ballistics tests carried out on a weapon recovered from his home matched the gun to bullet fragments from nine of the shootings.
"The key issue for us right now is to locate this guy," said Steve Martin, chief deputy in the Franklin County sheriff's office.
"We believe he has bought another gun."
Police identified the gunman whose bullets killed a 62-year-old woman, smashed car windscreens and dented school buses as Charles McCoy, who lives in Columbus, the state capital, close to where most of the shootings occurred.
Many of the shootings that began last May happened on the I-270 interstate, which circles the city in an 88km loop.
Initially police did not link the shootings but then, last November, the gunman shot and killed Gail Knisley, who had been Christmas shopping with a friend and had got lost.
As the investigation was stepped up, police matched the bullet that killed Knisley with those from several of the other shootings.
It is understood that McCoy's father, also called Charles, confiscated four guns and ammunition from his son after a shooting on February 14, apparently convinced that he was responsible for the attacks.
- INDEPENDENT
