Also, police Tuesday evening said three people initially identified as persons of interest were not involved in the shooting.
Numerous policing agencies responded to the shooting on I-75 south Monday afternoon. The incident caused a busy part of the highway to close for several hours while police investigated, and the shutdown caused traffic to back up in the surrounding areas.
Miami Twp. police are continuing to investigate the shooting. It’s not clear what started the incident, but 911 callers said someone began shooting at an SUV at around noon Monday.
“A car pulled up on another car and blasted them, and then the car that they shot at pulled off,” a 911 caller said.
Another 911 caller told dispatch that he was nearby when the gunfire began.
“I had to swerve out of the way,” the man said, adding that he had children in the car.
The caller told police that the shooter was “shooting out the back” of a blue Jeep Liberty four-door. He said that after the shooting, the vehicle left the highway a few miles down the road.
Middletown police saw a vehicle that matched the description from the 911 caller on Monday. A woman driving the detained blue Jeep was arrested on previous warrants and Miami Twp. police initially called her a “person of interest” in the shooting.
“There was only one person in that Jeep and she was arrested on an unrelated outstanding traffic warrant. A second vehicle was stopped in Middletown that contained two people who were also later determined not involved, Pat McCoy, Miami Twp. police public information officer, said Tuesday.
No one had been charged in connection to the shooting Tuesday and McCoy said police are still searching for the shooter. The vehicle is a dark blue Jeep, and although police are not sure of the specific model it is not a Wrangler, McCoy said.
The motive for the shooting is still under investigation, but McCoy said it does not appear to be road rage.
“The investigation is ongoing and detectives are following every lead and looking into any information received,” McCoy said. “We are encouraging anyone who saw the shooting or if they have any information about the event to police contact us.”
The department also is urging any truck drivers with dash cameras who was on I-75 South between the 44 and 42 mile posts at the time of the shooting to contact police as well.
The main number for the Miami Twp. Police Department is 937-433-2301.
Staff Writer Jen Balduf contributed to this report.
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