Passing car hit in shootout between Columbus police and suspects, who got $90k from bank

At least one passing motorist's vehicle was struck in the deadly shootout Thursday between Columbus police and three adult male suspects following a crime spree that included an armed bank robbery in which at least $90,000 was taken from a Fifth Third Bank branch, police revealed Friday night.

One man who called 911 told a Columbus police dispatcher that the car he was driving was hit by gunfire as it drove on the westbound lanes of Interstate 70 near West Mound Street during the shootout on the eastbound side that killed one suspect and critically wounded a city police officer.

"A stray bullet hit our car," said the driver, who said he was not hurt.

"There's a big hole in the roof," the driver said during a second 911 call.

One of the two suspects who fled the interstate shootout on foot headed south toward Mount Calvary Cemetery near the old Cooper Stadium site was carrying a rifle, the radio run report indicated.

Columbus police said Friday that eight of its officers were involved in the shootout at about 4 p.m. Thursday with the three adult male suspects, who were driving a Porsche SUV stolen earlier in Whitehall and used it to flee undercover vehicles driven by Whitehall police while escaping the robbery at a Fifth Third Bank branch on Hilliard Rom Road on Columbus' Far West Side.

The suspects fled on I-70 east and ended up near Downtown when they stopped in the middle of the interstate and emerged from the vehicle shooting at police.

The Columbus City Attorney's Office and the city Division of Police contend that the names of the Columbus poilice officers involved in the shootout — including the officer who was critically injured by a gunshot wound to his upper leg and his partner who rushed his colleague to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center — cannot be released under Ohio's version of Marsy's Law because the officers are victims of a violent crime, police said in a release. The law went into effect in April.

Police released no names and limited information about the eight Division of Police officers involved. The officer who was critically wounded but is stable following surgery, identified as Officer 1, has 10 months of service with the division. The other officers involved were also identified by police by a number and years of service.

Officer 2 has one year of service, officer 3 has six years, officer 4 has five years, officer 5 has one year, officer 6 has 10 years, officer 7 has 27 years of experience and officer 8 has eight years of experience.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and police officials continued to urge the public Friday to help provide information to them about the suspect still at-large, while providing the public with scant information. Police have not identified the dead suspect or the suspect in custody, and provided a grainy photo of the potentially armed suspect still at-large. Police have not indicated if they know the name of the at-large suspect.

Early Friday, police told the public on social media that they had the two wanted suspects in custody, only to report later in the morning that only one of the two at-large suspects was in custody.

Meanwhile, body camera footage released by Whitehall police on Friday showed the moments that started a pursuit that ultimately left a suspect dead on Interstate 70 near Downtown and a Columbus police officer with a long road to recovery.

The camera footage showed officers from Whitehall, who were in unmarked vehicles, boxing in the Porsche Cayenne SUV that had been stolen earlier Thursday afternoon from a car dealership in Whitehall. The armed robbery occurred around 2:15 p.m. Thursday at the Byers Import Porsche Columbus dealership located at 401 N. Hamilton Road.

Whitehall police and 911 calls said a man walked into the dealership's showroom wearing a facemask and with a gun, demanding the key fob to the SUV. Dispatchers took a 911 call shortly before 2:20 p.m. from the dealership reporting that a Black male wearing a facemask was pointing a gun at people inside. While speaking to the dispatcher, the caller said the suspect ran out the front of the dealership with the fob, hopped into the SUV and drove off northbound on North Hamilton Road.

The dealership was able to turn on anti-theft GPS software inside the SUV, Deputy Whitehall Chief Dan Kelso said, but the dealership was not able to disable the vehicle.

Employees at the Porsche dealership declined interview requests from The Dispatch, directing a reporter to a management official, who did not return phone messages.

Whitehall officers in undercover vehicles tracked the SUV using the GPS to the Fifth Third Bank branch at 2455 Hilliard-Rome Road on Columbus' Far West Side, where around 4 p.m. the occupants of the vehicle allegedly committed a "takeover style" robbery at the bank, Columbus police Assistant Chief Greg Bodker said.

The Whitehall body camera footage showed the SUV, which had backed up to the bank's doors, being boxed in by officers who had their guns drawn and were giving commands to the occupants to stop and stay where they were. The SUV slammed its way out and fled, despite repeated commands. Officers had guns pointed at the stolen SUV but did not fire.

There was some disagreement about how much money the thieves had taken from the bank, which was reported as about $100,000 on the radio run report but later determined to be about $90,000 following a call to police and discussion among bank officials.

Immediately after the bank robbery, Columbus police officers began pursuing the stolen SUV on Interstate 70 east toward Downtown. Near West Mound Street, the vehicle, for "reasons unknown," stopped at an odd angle on the highway, Bodker said.

At that point, at least one of the men inside the vehicle began to fire a gun at officers, who returned fire.

One of the suspects was fatally struck and was later pronounced dead on the highway. That man's identity has not yet been released by Columbus police. The Franklin County Coroner's office, which conducted an autopsy on that suspect, has also not released that man's identity.

The wounded Columbus police office underwent emergency surgery on Thursday to save his life and was later upgraded to stable condition, but has a long road to recovery ahead of him, Bodker said. His wife and family were with him at the hospital.

Ginther, Bodker and Safety Director Kate Pishotti visited with the officer and his family Friday at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.

The two other suspects fled the highway shootout on foot, running down a hill onto West Mound Street near Mount Cavalry Cemetery. One of them was armed with a rifle, the radio run report states.

An extensive manhunt involving officers from multiple departments, canines, a city police helicopter and SWAT units took place over multiple hours. The nearby Franklin County Children Services building was on lockdown for more than hour and officers fanned out in the area around the building, Mount Calvary Cemetery and the South Franklinton neighborhood, shutting down streets. Search dogs and a Columbus police helicopter joined in the search.

Early Friday morning, Columbus police announced the arrest of two males believed to have been involved in the crime spree at a home on East Weber Road in North Linden, posting on social media that the suspects were in custody.

However, outside the hospital on Friday, Bodker said only one of the two at-large suspects was in custody and police were looking for another, unidentified suspect. Bodker said detectives had been working throughout the night executing search warrants and conducting interviews.

A photograph of the suspect that remains at-large was released on Columbus police's Twitter account while Bodker was speaking Friday. Anyone with information on the suspect's identity or whereabouts is asked to call 911, police dispatchers at 614-645-4545 or Central Ohio Crime Stopper at 614-461-TIPS.

On Friday, police said the suspect who was taken into custody has not been officially charged and therefore, police were "withholding his identity."

More on the Columbus shootout: Columbus police officer shot after robberies, shootout near I-70: Here's what we know

Bodker said the group involved in the crime spree Thursday is being investigated as potentially involved in other crimes in Columbus and across central Ohio.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the police shooting, as is required by Columbus law. Investigators had a large section of I-70 closed after the shooting until around 4 a.m. Friday so they could gather evidence and document the crime scene.

The shut down of I-70 as well as sections of I-71 and Route 315 and other roadways came at the start of Thursday's afternoon commute and created havoc for many motorists.

Dispatch reporters Mark Ferenchik, Sheridan Hendrix and Grace Tucker contributed to this report.

bbruner@dispatch.com

@bethany_bruner

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Motorist's car hit in Columbus shootout; suspects got $90k from bank