DCI: Professor shot at drivers, cop on I-80 over fatal crash that didn't happen

An Illinois college professor who exchanged gunfire with a State Patrol trooper at an eastern Iowa truck stop earlier this month told authorities he fired at random semi-truck drivers in retaliation for what he believed was a truck crash that killed a family.

Charles Johnston, 60, of Belvidere, Illinois, told authorities he went on the shooting rampage Jan. 11 to harm a semi-truck driver or drivers because he was enraged over and obsessed with a family that was killed in a semi-truck crash, according to an application for a search warrant in Cedar County. He has been charged with attempted murder and assault on a peace officer with a dangerous weapon.

Johnston believed he witnessed a semi-truck driver run a family's vehicle off of the highway that day, killing them, said Ryan Herman, a special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Herman, however, said investigators have found no evidence to support that claim; Herman described the shooting as road rage.

Troopers responded to multiple reports of a person shooting at vehicles at about 2:20 p.m. along Interstate Highway 80 east of a rest stop in Cedar County. The shooter then drove west in a black 2013 Volkswagen Jetta and got off at exit 265, south of Rochester and north of Atalissa. At the Pilot Travel Center there, he continued to shoot at random motorists, authorities said.

As a semi-truck driver was pulling out of the travel station, Johnston pointed a handgun out of his car's window and fired multiple shots at the driver, according to a search warrant application. The driver told authorities that the shooter's car circled around behind him on the passenger side, so the semi-truck driver swerved and struck Johnson's car, pinning it under the trailer. Johnston then fired several more rounds into the truck driver's passenger door, authorities said.

About 30 minutes after the initial shots fired calls, State Patrol Sgt. David Saldivar arrived on scene and approached Johnson's Jetta, according to a criminal complaint. Johnston pointed a handgun at Saldivar and fired two shots at the trooper, striking his patrol car, police records show. The trooper returned fire, prosecutors said.

More troopers arrived and ordered Johnston to show his hands and get out of his car, according to the search warrant application. Johnston was taken into custody after a brief standoff. There were no reports of injuries associated with the gunfire.

Johnston told authorities that he had been taking several prescription drugs and had recently been hospitalized. Prescription pill bottles could be seen in his car, police said.

During the investigation, authorities seized a Smith & Wesson handgun, bullets, magazines and shell casings, Herman said Tuesday.

Police found a bullet hole in at least one vehicle and multiple semi-trailers, which were shot while pulling into the travel center. Authorities found another bullet hole in a semi-truck at the rest area where police initially responded to shots fired, Herman said.

Herman on Tuesday again declined to comment on why the man from Belvidere, an area near Rockford, was in Iowa. He is being held at the Cedar County Jail on $1 million bond.

Johnston has worked as an associate professor in the department of psychology at Harper College, a community college in Palatine, Illinois, since 1996. He was absent without approved leave and has since been barred from campus, a college spokeswoman said.