Bullets Strike Out-of-State Car on I-40

Police still have a great many unanswered questions about an apparent drive-by shooting on Interstate 40 between Wade and Harrison Avenues Monday. According to police, there are as many holes in the alleged victims' story as there are in the white Jeep Cherokee they were driving.

A Texas couple who was delivering a the vehicle to a Greensboro woman escaped without injury when, they say, someone riddled the vehicle with bullets about 1 p.m. The driver, Johnny Brigman (center, at left), said he noticed his window exploding and immediately pulled off the highway into a parking lot. He and his passenger, Jennifer Lampley (bottom, at left), say they didn't know they'd been shot at until they got out of the vehicle.

Major Danny Bellamy of the Wake County Sheriff's Department says many people travel that road, and he doesn't blame them for being concerned, but adds that there are a lot of discrepancies in the Texas couple's story.

Gary Smith, Brigman's boss at Auto Drive Away in Houston, says Brigman has only worked there as a delivery driver for three months, and there has been no problem before. He is, however, concerned about this situation.

For one thing, neither police nor the boss can figure out why a trip from Houston to Greensboro would be routed through Raleigh. For another, the driver has told slightly different versions of the shooting story to police and to his boss.

Brigman and Lampley reportedly told police that the shots came from a line of trees above the road. Smith says Brigman told him that another car pulled alongside them on the highway and began shooting.