By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Nine reports of shots fired at vehicles around the same stretch of interstate, including one that killed a woman headed to her doctor, are not being investigated as a sniper case, a sheriff's deputy said Wednesday.

"We're not referring to this as a sniper case because we don't see that this is in the same vein as what any of the other cases have been," Franklin County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Steve Martin said. He would not elaborate on how the shootings differ.

A law enforcement task force will investigate whether the shootings around the southern section of Interstate 270 are related.

Authorities planned to compare bullets from the shootings, the first reported in May and the others all in the past 61/2 weeks, Martin said. No one else was injured.

Police did not have sufficient information Wednesday to say the shootings are linked, he said.

The section of interstate runs through one of the less populated areas of Columbus, with parts surrounded by woods frequented by hunters and people practicing target shooting, police said.

The surrounding area is a mix of industrial sites, rural land and some suburban residential neighborhoods.

Gail Knisley, 62, of Washington Court House, was killed Tuesday morning when a bullet ripped through the driver's door of the Pontiac Grand Am driven by her best friend, Mary Cox.

The two were talking when they heard a pop.

"What was that? What was that?" Knisley said before slumping forward, according to the recording of Cox's 911 call. Cox, 63, of Grove City, made the call on a cell phone after pulling over to the berm near the U.S. 23 interchange.

Police said gunfire also hit a pickup truck Tuesday night near the stretch of Columbus' outerbelt.

Martin would not speculate on the type of weapon that killed Knisley.

Sheriff Jim Karnes said he doubted the bullet was fired from another vehicle because the trajectory was too low.

Martin said he issued a statewide alert to other law officers to be on the lookout for similar shootings.

The reports of vehicles hit by gunfire were filed by different law-enforcement agencies and had not been coordinated until Tuesday, he said.

"The sharing of information is going back and forth to determine how this may have occurred and who may have committed the offense," said Sgt. Rick Zwayer, a State Highway Patrol spokesman.

Some people who travel or work near the area were nervous.

Ken Groce, 64, said he frequently uses the highway when he runs errands but avoided it Wednesday when he went shopping.

"It alarms me. It made me change my route," he said as he filled his car with gas at a convenience store less than two miles from where Knisley was shot.

Tammi Siniss, a mother of four and a clerk at the gas station, said she had heard only two customers talk about the shootings.

"Since I've been hearing about it, I won't even get into a passenger seat," said Siniss, who lives in an apartment near the interstate. "It's just creepy."

Knisley's son, Brent Knisley, said his mother was on the way to a doctor's appointment following minor surgery on skin cancer lesions on her nose.

His mother didn't like to drive in Columbus and had driven to Cox's suburban home to let her drive. The two planned to have lunch and go Christmas shopping.

"Obviously our hopes are they nail whoever's doing this," Brent Knisley, 43, said Wednesday. "I'm still kind of numb from this thing. This only happens in Washington, D.C., and big communities."

His mother was a homemaker who helped with the accounting at the family collision business in Washington Court House, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus.