Local high school van fired at during highway shooting

MADISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WJW) – Coaches, along with junior high school wrestler Hunter Hutcheson, were traveling to the Schottenstein Center in Columbus Friday morning for the state high school wrestling championships when their school van was suddenly in the crosshairs of a gunman on the open lanes of Interstate 71.

Police have identified a gunman as 21-year-old Jonathon Myers, who is believed to have crashed his vehicle into a barrier in the northbound lanes of the highway about 10 a.m. Friday.

ODOT cameras appear to show him exchanging words with another person on the side of the highway.

A short time later, he is seen running away from police on the open lanes of the highway, then turning and firing shots in their direction.

In the southbound lanes was the van from Madison High School.

“According to our coach, traffic seemed to slow and he was in the process of avoiding the slowed down traffic and noticed that there was a person on the highway with a gun and had it aimed at them and shot at them,” said Superintendent Rob Peterson.

The bullet is believed to have hit, but glanced off of the windshield of the van, leaving only a small spider crack in the glass.

“They kind of described it as surreal. You never anticipate something like that happening and they were really, I think, shaken up by it as anybody would but kept their wits about them and down the road a little bit, pulled over and called 911 and began the process of working with the Columbus police department on dealing with the issue,” said Peterson.

In the van were five people, including coaches and at least the one wrestler who Peterson said was asleep in a back seat at the time.

No one in the van was injured.

Columbus police reported several other calls from cars that had been shot but no other injuries.

Myers was hit by return fire from police but was not seriously hurt. He has since been charged with attempted aggravated murder for shooting at uniformed police, according to court documents, and was being held without bond.

Coaches gave statements to numerous police agencies involved in the investigation and Hutcheson was able to compete in his wrestling competition, taking fourth place in the 190 weight class.

“You think of the thousands of vehicles that go down I-71 on a daily basis and unfortunately ours happened to be there right at that time. However, the fact that we came through it without any injuries or anything to any of our kids or our employees, we just feel very fortunate, very happy that’s how it played out,” said Peterson.