Troopers don’t believe a woman shot while driving south on Interstate 77 near the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton early Wednesday was the victim of a random shooting.
The Stark County woman was shot about 3:30 a.m., suffering non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
More than six bullets were fired at the woman’s gray 2005 Kia Sedona minivan, according to Lt. Leo Shirkey of the Canton post of the State Highway Patrol. Bullet holes were found on the vehicle’s passenger side.
The woman was shot in the hand and a bullet grazed the back of her head.
“This was not road rage,” Shirkey said. “This was not a random act of violence. There’s something to this.”
He would not give a specific reason that leads troopers to believe the shooting was not random.
He said troopers investigating the shooting made the determination after talking to the victim and looking at the minivan that she was driving.
“The vehicle had multiple gunshot rounds shot at it,” he noted.
Shirkey said the patrol is not revealing the woman’s name at this time.
Social media posts showed the minivan with gunshots in the sheet metal and with shattered windows.
The woman left the minivan and ran to a nearby home. Emergency personnel transported her to the nearby Mercy Medical Center in Canton.
A trooper driving south on the interstate initially spotted broken glass on the roadway, Shirkey said. He then found the minivan, with bullet holes on the passenger side and blood inside, in the right southbound lane past the Exit 106 ramp, near Mercy Medical Center.
The shooting shut down the southbound lane of the highway for hours, backing up morning rush-hour traffic. The highway reopened to traffic about 9 a.m.
State traffic cameras showed traffic was backed up as far north as Dressler Road on I-77 as of 8:45 a.m.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. Beacon Journal staff writer Jim Mackinnon contributed to this report.