Wild Scene As Suspect Fires On Police While Running On Ohio Highway, Suspect Was Shot At Least Once

A shooter standing on Interstate 71 northbound and firing at vehicles Friday morning near the Gemini Place interchange — striking at least three vehicles — was shot by Columbus police after he opened fire on them, police spokesman Sgt. James Fuqua said.

The incident began shortly at 9:56 a.m. when a young man or older teenager driving a 2014 Gray Ford Fusion went off the left side of I-71 northbound north of East Powell Road and the Gemini Place/IKEA Way exit in Delaware County and struck a cable barrier in the median, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol.

The male driver exited the vehicle and started randomly shooting at vehicles on the interstate with a handgun, Fuqua said. A female also exited the vehicle and was in the grass media.

Columbus police and the Delaware County and Franklin County sheriff's offices all started receiving calls from motorists about the shooting at 9:57 a.m., Fuqua said.

When Columbus police officers arrived at the scene, the male suspect in a black hoodie started walking away, then running north on the interstate from police, heading to the left shoulder of the northbound lane.

As one officer drove toward the gunman with the door of his police cruiser open, a video posted on Twitter — taken by a female passenger inside the vehicle of a couple traveling southbound on I-71 — shows the suspect suddenly turn and fire multiple times at the cruiser, striking it at least once in the hood.

The officer returns fire from inside the cruiser through his windshield as other officers on foot run toward the shooting using the cruiser as a shield, the video shows.

"Oh my god," the male driver says on the video of the gunfire exchange that had erupted just across the grassy median on the northbound side of the interstate.

The suspect is seen turning and running as the Twitter video ends, but ODOT video shows him veering back across the interstate to the right berm, where Fuqua said the suspect was struck by gunfire from at least one Columbus officer and went down.