Cambridge, Ohio

From Pittsburgh’s KDKA.com of June 26, 2006

Driver Kills Man Hiding In Back Seat

A motorist wrestled a gun from a suspected carjacker and fired three shots, killing the man who had sneaked into the back seat of the car while it was parked at a gas pump, authorities said.

John Toubell, 44, of Antrim, had arranged to meet a detective at the gas station to turn himself in for robbing a restaurant, but he instead climbed in the car when the driver was inside early Sunday paying for gasoline and beef jerky, Guernsey County Sheriff Mike McCauley said.

The shooting appeared to be self-defense because driver Brian Starr was shot in the thigh by the suspect before he took the gun away, McCauley said.

Starr, 29, of Cambridge, said he saw a head in his rearview mirror as he drove away. "Then I saw the gun coming around," he said. The car was moving while the men fought, then it crashed into a ditch.

Starr and passing motorists called 911, McCauley said. Toubell was shot in the head, neck and chest, Coroner Janet Brockwell said.

Investigators believe the gun used in the attempted carjacking was stolen from the owner of the restaurant that Toubell was accused of robbing, McCauley said.

A steel rod was placed in Starr's thigh because the bullet broke his leg bone in half, he told The Columbus Dispatch from Grant Medical Center in Columbus.