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Pickerington school hit by bullets during weekend

Columbus Dispatch Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Pickerington school hit by bullets during weekend

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Kevin Kidder

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Three shots were fired through windows at a Pickerington elementary school last week, police and school officials confirmed yesterday.

No students were at the school when the shooting occurred late Friday or early Saturday, and no officials are making any connection to the central Ohio sniper at this time.

A letter that was sent home yesterday afternoon to parents of students at Tussing Elementary School, 7117 Tussing Rd., said the shots went through a window in the art room and a side window at the back of the school.
One bullet was recovered by a janitor and at least one bullet remains lodged in a wall, Principal Thomas C. Wilkinson said.

The shooting likely occurred between midnight Friday and 1 a.m. Saturday, according to the police report. A custodian was on duty at the time but didn’t hear anything, Wilkinson said. The janitor called police when the window was found shattered.

No one was injured.

Calls made by The Dispatch to Franklin County Chief Deputy Steve Martin, who heads up the task force investigating the serial shooter, weren’t returned last night.

Wilkinson said he doesn’t believe the task force went to the school to check out the shooting, which was investigated by Columbus police.
The shooter probably was firing from a parking lot at the school and might have been aiming at a sculpture shaped like a whale tail, according to the police report. The 20-footplus steel sculpture is outside the back of the school.

"I was furious that someone would do that to our school," Wilkinson said last night.

The police report lists the value of the windows at $600. They were covered with cardboard when students arrived at school yesterday.
kkidder@dispatch.com

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The Columbus Dispatch