Posted on 01/05/2004 8:14:56 AM PST by flutters
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A Columbus man and members of his family have been questioned repeatedly in a string of shootings around the city's outerbelt, a newspaper reported Saturday.
James Gearheart is one of hundreds of people questioned by law enforcement investigating 18 related shootings along Interstate 270 in southern Franklin County, including the Nov. 26 killing of 62-year-old Gail Knisley. No one else has been injured.
Investigators have visited Gearheart's house twice, questioned him about firearms purchases and searched the car his son was driving.
Gearheart, 55, was released from prison 20 years ago. The former safecracker told the Columbus Dispatch that investigators said they'd received several calls about him. There was no answer Saturday at a telephone listing for the family.
"I can call on my next-door neighbor and tell them he has a gun, and he goes on the list," Gearheart said. "I've asked them to give me a polygraph test to get it over with and get my name off the list."
A telephone message seeking comment was left Saturday with the detective bureau of the Franklin County Sheriff's office, which is leading the shootings investigation.
More than 3,100 tips were called in to the shootings task force as of Friday, and investigators have said about one in five come from people reporting on neighbors and family members.
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Gearheart...safe cracker...? Sounds white to me. The new racial profiling: look for da white Man in a white Van. There is sooo many of them.
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