WORTHINGTON, Ohio — Worthington police are investigating an apparent road rage shooting they say happened on Monday around 2:30 a.m. on Interstate 270 westbound, west of the Galena Avenue bridge. A man was injured after being struck in the leg.
“It kind of was a road rage situation. There was no one else on the roadway. The suspect vehicle ends up pulling up on our victim's vehicle, kind of tailing him on 270. The victim's vehicle starts break-checking him and at that point the suspect vehicle goes around and fires one round at the vehicle,” explained Worthington Police Detective Steve Louma.
Worthington police say the suspect, identified as Tejuan Parks, got into the road rage incident with an Uber driver.
Louma said a man in the backseat of the Uber was the one who was struck by the bullet
In the last five years, there have only been a handful of shootings in Worthington.
One person was shot in 2023 and one in 2022. There weren't any in the previous three years.
Road rage incidents are becoming more common.
“Recently I've seen just a lot of road rage incidents happening around central Ohio. This adds into that as well,” Louma said.
With the help of cameras, including Flock license plate reading cameras, Worthington police arrested Parks within 12 hours.
“We recovered one casing in the car from the suspect vehicle and we also recovered a firearm in that vehicle,” Louma said.
Parks was out on bond and currently has two open cases in Franklin County that involve drugs and firearms. He has a criminal history dating back to 2011.
Louma said that is even more reason why he is glad they made this arrest quickly.
“There's a lot of people that travel on I-270. My family, everyone knows someone who travels on 270. All the traffic that there is daily on there. It's kind of a situation that could happen to anyone,” Louma said.