Investigators searching for Columbus man they suspect in two dozen Ohio highway shootings

<br> <br>COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Police on Tuesday hunted for a 28-year-old man they believe was the gunman in two dozen highway shootings that have terrorized motorists for months. <br><br>Charles A. McCoy

Tuesday, March 16th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Police on Tuesday hunted for a 28-year-old man they believe was the gunman in two dozen highway shootings that have terrorized motorists for months.

Charles A. McCoy Jr. was believed to be armed and dangerous, the Franklin County Sheriff's Office said. He lived within miles of where the gunman's bullets killed a passenger, shattered windshields, dented school buses and drilled into homes and a school.

``The key issue for us right now is to locate this guy,'' Chief Deputy Steve Martin said. ``We believe he bought another gun.''

Martin would not say what evidence led investigators to McCoy, but newspaper and television reports said Tuesday that McCoy's family gave authorities at least one of his guns.

The Columbus Dispatch, citing unidentified sources, said McCoy's father, Charles A. McCoy Sr., gave police a 9 mm Beretta handgun that was ballistically matched to some of the bullet fragments recovered in the shootings. There was no phone listing for the elder McCoy.

Martin's office, which is in charge of the investigation, would not release any details about the case Tuesday morning.

Since May, two dozen sniper shootings have targeted vehicles and buildings around Interstate 270, which circles Columbus, and other highways. Most of the shootings have occurred since October; the latest was on Feb. 14.

Investigators filed an arrest warrant late Monday for McCoy on a charge of felonious assault in a Dec. 15 shooting that damaged a house. No one answered the phone at that house late Monday.

In the three most recent shootings, witnesses described seeing someone aiming at them while standing next to a car. Their descriptions of the suspect and car were similar to information the sheriff's office released Monday.

The suspect is 5-foot-8, 185 pounds with brown hair and green eyes, the sheriff's office said Monday. The car is a dark green 1999 Geo Metro with a black hood.

However, a woman who lives next to the house where McCoy lived with his mother on a Columbus street said Tuesday that she saw him leave Monday morning after putting a couple of boxes in the trunk of a different car. Janet Taylor said it was a silver-gray, late 1980s General Motors car.

Taylor, 37, said she had always had a strange feeling about McCoy, saying he yelled at her kids and watched her while she washed dishes.

``No one believed me, he's a freak,'' she said.

From the beginning, Martin had said investigators believe the shooter is familiar with the area around I-270. Although the last four shootings were on other highways, most of those that occurred through January were within about a 10-mile southern stretch of the interstate.

Half a mile north of that stretch, other neighbors gathered in disbelief Monday.

``I even drove other ways to avoid being in the area where most of the shootings happened, and now I find out that the suspect lives right across the street from me,'' said Nicole Sewald, 28, whose son attends an elementary school struck one night by the shooter.

A light was on in the McCoys' split-level house Monday but the curtains were drawn and no one answered the door. A real estate agent briefly drove up to remove a ``for sale'' sign from in front of the house.

``I think my husband said once that they were having trouble selling the house because the shootings in the area,'' resident Nicole Sewald said.

Edward Cable, whose minivan was hit by a bullet Nov. 21 as he was driving on a road near Interstate 270, said by telephone he was glad to hear a suspect was identified.

``I just hope they find him soon, and I wish it hadn't taken so long,'' the retired prison guard said. ``If they do have concrete evidence that this guy was the one who did it, I hope they pick him up before someone else is shot.''