Former Buckeye charged in shooting
A man was shot in the head in broad daylight in an apparent road rage incident Saturday in the 100 block of East William Street in Delaware.
Civitas News Service
A man was shot in the head in broad daylight in an apparent road rage incident Sunday in the 100 block of East William Street in Delaware.
Former Ohio State football star Jim Stillwagon is suspected of shooting at a pickup truck near the U.S. Route 33 and U.S. Route 42 intersection north of Plain City. Later, Stillwagon struck the driver with a handgun, causing it to fire a bullet that grazed the man’s head. The road rage incident spanned about 14 miles, police said Monday.
Stillwagon was apprehended at the scene without incident.
The college Hall of Famer, a middle guard who helped the Buckeyes to a national championship in 1968, was jailed on a felonious assault charge and had bond set at $350,000 in municipal court in Delaware, north of Columbus.
Court records didn’t list an attorney for the 63-year-old Stillwagon. A phone message was left Monday at his home in suburban Columbus.
The brazen shooting appeared to be an apparent case of road rage that began near Plain City between the shooter, who was driving a motorcycle, and the victim, who was driving a pick-up truck, police said.
They said Stillwagon fired shots at the pickup truck, which turned into a parking area near a car parts store, across the street from some homes. Stillwagon then confronted the 41-year-old truck driver and struck him with the handgun, said Bruce Pijanowski, the interim police chief in Delaware.
The shooting occurred at approximately 3:35 p.m. near the Auto Zone store adjacent to the U.S. 23 exit ramp off of East William Street. Delaware police closed the area off and re-routed traffic while they investigated the crime scene.
There was no indication Stillwagon knew the injured man, who was treated at a hospital and checked himself out Sunday night, he said.
Multiple rounds were fired in the incident and said acting Delaware Police Chief Bruce Pijanowski described the victim as “very lucky” given that he had been shot in the head but sustained only non-life threatening injuries.
“Considering the circumstances, he’s extremely lucky,” Pijanowski said. “He had probably just superficial injuries, and it could have been a lot worse.”
Stillwagon had a permit and was legally carrying the gun, Pijanowski said.
The former Ohio State defender was a three-year starter for coach Woody Hayes from 1968 to 1970, when the Buckeyes had three Big Ten titles in addition to their national championship.
Stillwagon was an All-American as a junior and senior and won the Outland and Lombardi awards, given to the dominant interior lineman in the country. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers but instead went to the Canadian Football League, where he played for the Toronto Argonauts through the 1975 season.
A preliminary hearing in his assault case is scheduled for Oct. 10.
Associated Press reporters Kantele Franko and Rusty Miller contributed to this report.
