Authorities following leads on drive-by shootings

Lawmen are thankful there was no escalation of incidents over the Christmas holidays as they continue to try to determine the identity of the Yuletide shooter who opened fire randomly last week, wounding one man and terrorizing a pair of elderly women.

“The one man who was shot will be fine we think, although they had to leave the bullet in him,” said Sheriff Jackie Matheny of the White County man who was shot in the back Thursday night by the drive-by style Yuletide shooter.

The man was wounded when the mysterious shooter pulled alongside the vehicle in which he and friends were riding on the four-lane Sparta Highway about midway between McMinnville and Campaign. The men, who were returning home to White County after Christmas shopping here, told lawmen the man pulled alongside them, rolled down his window and opened fire, with one of the bullets striking the victim in the back. The victim was taken to White County Hospital for treatment of his wound. The men say there was no reason and no provocation for the shooting, something lawmen tend to believe.

“We have reason to believe the man being wounded and the drive-by the night before on Spring Valley are related,” Matheny said in issuing a warning to the public just before Christmas.

The shooting on Spring Valley Road happened 24 hours before the Sparta Highway incident and involved a gunman pulling in front of the home of a couple of elderly women and opening fire, riddling their wall with bullets before driving away. Just as in the case of the Sparta Highway drive-by, the victims were unlikely and probably random.

“We’re thankful there were no more incidents, and trust me, we are working real hard on this,” Matheny said. “We have received a call or two and we are looking at some things but that is as much as I can say right now.”

Another drive-by shooting on the Tuesday before the others, in which a house was shot into on Clark Boulevard, is not believed to be related.