Blue pickup truck identified in fatal shooting on Interstate 77 last week

Bryce Buyakie, Akron Beacon Journal
·2 min read
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No arrests have been reported a week after someone shot and killed an Akron man on southbound Interstate 77 in Green.

But investigators have identified a blue 2008 Dodge Ram pickup truck in connection to the Aug. 3 homicide, according to a report the Summit County Sheriff's Office released to the Akron Beacon Journal in response to a public records request. The newspaper is awaiting additional reports and video it has requested.

A pickup truck that matches this description can be seen in ODOT traffic video near mile marker 117 south of South Arlington Road at 6:14 p.m. The video shows a person lean or reach out of the same vehicle to fire several shots into the black SUV driven by 23-year-old Marquise Banks.

Banks' vehicle crossed the median, entered the northbound lanes and crashed into a Mercedes driven by a 54-year-old woman who survived. Banks was later pronounced dead.

I-77 shooting: Akronite killed in I-77 shooting, crash identified; crash victim says she was 'lucky.'

The Summit County Sheriff's Office reports a passenger of a pickup truck fired several rounds from a handgun into a black Lincoln SUV while both vehicles were traveling southbound on I-77. The driver of the Lincoln SUV was struck multiple times and killed,
The Summit County Sheriff's Office reports a passenger of a pickup truck fired several rounds from a handgun into a black Lincoln SUV while both vehicles were traveling southbound on I-77. The driver of the Lincoln SUV was struck multiple times and killed,

The truck was located using Flock Safety cameras that record license plate information, the sheriff's report states. The license plate and owner information were redacted from the report.

There are no Flock cameras along one of the two Ohio Department of Transportation districts of I-77 in Summit County. It is unclear if the second district has those cameras, said Matt Bruning, press secretary for ODOT. Flock cameras are used in Jackson Township to the south and Akron to the north.

Detectives executed a search warrant in New Philadelphia on Aug. 4, Summit County Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland told News 5 Cleveland last week.

The Summit County Sheriff's Office and the New Philadelphia Police Department have not responded to requests for comment.

No charges or affidavits have been filed at Barberton Municipal Court, Clerk of Courts Katie Reed said.

Flock uses automated license plate reader technology, snapping images that are run through a national crime database. Police can be immediately alerted if a stolen car passes a camera.

Traffic cameras played a similar role in another freeway homicide in Norton on May 17.

Dacarrei Kinard, of Columbus, has been indicted by a Summit County grand jury on five felony counts, including two types of murder in the Interstate 76 shooting of George Jensen, 40.

A Norton police affidavit filed with the court states a black Camaro that witnesses said was driven by the shooter exited I-76 eastbound at Barber Road and turned north, where Kinard's license plate was spotted by an electronic license plate reader.

A search warrant for Kinard's phone records "confirmed the device linked to the phone number Kinard listed with the BMV was present at the scene" and traveled from Columbus to Norton and back. The affidavit mentions video gathered from ODOT and the Fred Martin Superstore, a car dealership on Barber Road.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Pickup truck identified in I-77 shooting that killed Marquise Banks