Victim glad he was alone during I-70 road rage shooting
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A man is being charged with felonious assault while another is recovering after a shooting on a central Ohio highway during Tuesday morning's commute.
"I don't understand what was so important to him to think it was OK to shoot into my vehicle and hit me," Jesse Morris, the victim of an alleged road rage incident Tuesday, said. "I'm glad I didn't have my daughter in the car with me because she goes a lot of places with me and it could have been her, not me."
It was around 7 a.m. when Morris was on I-70 West. He said a car drove past him in the emergency lane and he thought nothing of it and let it go. Later in the drive, that same car, a gold Chevrolet Equinox, slowed down until it was next to him again; Morris said that's when the driver of that vehicle shot him.
"The only road rage that happened was him pulling up next to me and shooting into my door and at that point, it was just a matter of trying to get away to try to save myself," Morris said.
The shooting took place on I-70 West near West Mound Street, according to the Columbus Division of Police.
Morris said he drove a few more miles after being shot because the other driver was chasing him. Morris eventually stopped and got help on I-70 West near Hauge Avenue.
"We’re all people, we’re all human beings and to have somebody want to end somebody else's life because they felt they were wronged in traffic for whatever reason is just something that's ridiculous and beyond the scope of my thoughts of why that's acceptable," Morris said.
Morris is recovering at home. He said he has a hole in his lower jaw, doctors had to pick shrapnel out of his face, and he will need another surgery.
The shooting happened as he was on the way to a chemotherapy appointment, according to Morris.
"I had blood all over my face and in my eyes and, you know, I'm lucky," he said. "I'm lucky, in a sense, I guess. I’ve had a lot of stuff happen in the last 18 months with my diagnosis and stuff like that, but this could have ended a lot differently."
DeWayne Timothy-Marquis Pittman, 33, has been arrested and charged with felonious assault in connection with the incident.