The Summit County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fatal shooting and crash that occurred Thursday evening. According to authorities, the passenger of a pickup truck fired several rounds of shots on Interstate 77 southbound in Green into a black SUV around 6:15 p.m.
"And then we just heard like — pop! —so we look up, and the dude is hanging on the handle leaning out of the window and just started firing," a witness said. "It seemed like 'Mission Impossible' or something.
A witness of the incident that we spoke with did not want to be identified.
Marquise Banks, the 23-year-old man driving the SUV, was hit by the bullets multiple times, causing him to travel across the median into the northbound lanes.
"I was scared. This guy is swerving. You don't know if he's gonna hit you. You don't know if it's a targeted attack if it's road rage, if he's gonna fire at anybody else," the witness said.
Video from the Ohio Department of Transportation shows the SUV striking a Mercedes going North and the pickup truck fleeing the scene.
"All of a sudden, I realized it was kind of like spinning and then it started coming across the median," said Ann Shuman, the driver of the Mercedes that was struck by the SUV. "It blasted me right in the driver's side, so I was just kind of an innocent bystander."
Her car was pushed off the highway and spun around. Several other drivers ran over to check on her. She was taken to a nearby hospital, but amazingly, she only suffered bumps, bruises and a scrape on her arm.
"It's just getting to be a crazy world we live in, but I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Shuman said. "But I definitely had some guardian angels looking out for me."
Banks was also taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Inspector Bill Holland said it's remarkable no one else was killed, with so many others traveling at high speeds on I-77.
"We are asking anybody that has information regarding the incident to contact the Summit Sheriff's Office Detective Bureau," he said.
Summit County detectives continued to make progress throughout the day and executed a search warrant in New Philadelphia. It's believed that the location has some connection to the shooter.
"We're still gathering information about it at this point because it is an ongoing investigation, and we're pretty confident that it's going very well," Holland said.
The witness said the terrifying shooting will likely linger in his mind for a long time, and he hopes there will be justice for the man shot and killed while driving.
"It was kind of traumatic, just looking up and seeing it," he said. "I think it should be the first priority, obviously, because he just killed somebody, a 23-year-old kid, and injured another person as well."
The shooting and the crash remain under investigation, and anyone with information is asked to call the Summit County Sheriff’s Detective Bureau at 330-630-6317.
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