A routine trip to Columbus made recent Columbus highway shootings hit home for State Rep. Todd Book.

Tuesday afternoon, Book (D-89th District) ventured onto the southern stretch of Interstate 270 that circles the city from U.S. 23. When he came onto the highway, he said he noticed helicopters swirling about. His first thought was that a terrible wreck had happened.

Then, he saw 14-15 county sheriff's cruisers and deputies carrying rifles searching through nearby wooded areas. Book said he then believed someone had escaped from the Franklin County Jail, which is in the southern part of the county. He then arrived at the committee meeting he was scheduled to attend and found out what really happened.

Sixty-two-year-old Gail Knisley of Washington Court House was killed. She was shot earlier that day while riding in a car with a friend on the interstate. Hers was one of 11 vehicles shot along a five-mile stretch of the interstate traveled by many Lawrence Countians on their way to Columbus.

"That's when it all came to me," Book said. "What's worse is that many people traveling from Ironton or Portsmouth take that section of I-270 to I-71 to go downtown. That's where it's all happening."

Franklin County authorities are investigating 11 shootings that began earlier this along the southern stretch of the interstate near the intersection of I-270 and U.S. 23. According to a report from the Associated Press, authorities did not realize the shootings were happening until Knisley's death Tuesday. Many of them were first reported afterward. The bullet that killed her came from the same gun as a bullet in one of the other shootings. Authorities have declined to say which one, but patrols have increased in the area.

One or more people are deliberately targeting drivers, but authorities refuse to use the word "sniper."

Book will be traveling to Columbus Tuesday, and he said he will probably take an alternate route. Traveling through southern Columbus, he said, is not very inconvenient. However, taking a different route when going to popular malls like Easton and Tuttle Crossing, will be very inconvenient for motorists, he said.

Ironton attorney Phillip Heald is a frequent Columbus visitor, especially during Ohio State University's football season. Many local visitors to Columbus, he said, do not know any other route besides I-270.

"I don't see any way to avoid the area," he said. "I hope they get this crime solved because this is a little distressing."

This past Thanksgiving, Ironton resident Sue Vanderhoof's son Andrew Cronacher, a freshman at Ohio State University, rode with a friend to visit his family in Ironton. Until her son called last Wednesday, she said she had no idea that there were shootings.

As a mother, she said, news of the shootings is unsettling, Vanderhoof said. When Andrew went back to school, she said she encouraged him and the friend driving to drive straight through Columbus on U.S. 23.

However, she emphasized that she is always concerned about her son, no matter where he may be. Random acts of violence, she said, may happen anywhere, not just Columbus. The only way a parent is able to keep a child completely safe is to keep him/her at home under lock and key, which is impossible. In the case of Elizabeth Smart, even that is not fool-proof, she said.

"God goes before him everywhere he goes," Vanderhoof said. "That brings me peace at mind."