9-1-1 Call From Trucker Shot On I-75

    Important details are unfolding in the bizarre shooting of a truck driver on Interstate 75 in north Georgia. NewsChannel 9 first told you about George McKeever getting shot Tuesday afternoon in his own cab while driving north. In his call to 9-1-1, McKeever tells the operator,  "I'm a truck driver, I was coming up the road and all of a sudden my passenger window exploded and I've got a hole in my arm and I'm bleeding. It looks like a bullet wound, maybe a hunter or a sniper, I don't know."

   This happened just before 4:30 Tuesday afternoon. As he described, a bullet shattered the passenger side window of McKeever's cab. The bullet hit him in the right shoulder but he kept driving about four miles to the Welcome Center before stopping. The good news, the driver from Floral City, Florida, is in good condition and recovering at Erlanger Medical Center.

    We learned through the Catoosa County sheriff's department that the bullet came from a high-powered rifle. And investigators believe the shooting happened near the Battlefield Parkway overpass, mile marker 350 or possibly north of there.

    We drove that some one mile area. It is heavily wooded, but also many homes dot the landscape beyond the trees bordering the freeway.

   After McKeever was shot a man and woman came from Atlanta to pick up his truck. They told us that police told them it was a hunter's stray bullet that struck him in the shoulder. Catoosa's investigation has not yet reached that conclusion, at least publicly.

     Sheriff Phil Summers said, "At this time, the case is under investigation and it is unclear whether the incident was an accident or intended to cause injury to the victim."

      And if the dangerous bullet turns out to be fired by a hunter, a cardinal rule of knowing what is behind your target, like one of the busiest interstates in America, was shattered. And one can only imagine the alarming impact of a bullet exploding through your window on an otherwise uneventful drive. At the end of his call to 9-1-1, Mckeever told the operator, "I'm sitting outside of the cab right now on the ground. I'm shaking. I'm all shook up, I don't know what to do. I need help." The dispatcher calmly responded, "I'm going to get an ambulance to you as soon as we can, okay."

And this is the second vehicle with a shattered window in the past two weeks.

    On December 17th, the driver side of a TDOT help truck was shattered while driving. And this happened just north of the same Welcome Center. Two people were inside, no one was hurt.

    The trooper who worked the case says there was no indication a bullet did the damage.Meanwhile, the truck driver shooting remains under investigation.