From the Office of the Ohio Attorney General:
John William Pennington (Oct 6, 1959 – Dec 8, 1985) was in a car in the drive thru of Taco Bell at 3591 West Broad St.in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio. An altercation happened between the (unknown in identity and number) people in his car and another person (unknown gender, age, etc.) in the car ahead of John’s.
The person in the car ahead of John’s got out, walked back to John’s car, and began stabbing all of the people in John’s car. The attacker then got back in his own car, and left. John was transported to the hospital where he later died from his wounds.
Family
According to the family, there were four other people in John’s car. John had tried to stop a fight. According to their email, they were in the parking lot of that Taco Bell and not in the drive thru line as per the Ohio Attorney General’s Office page.
The family further said that John was a real estate agent and played football. He helped many people find homes.
Questions
I cannot find anything about the other four passengers in John’s car.
- Was John the driver with four passengers or was John one of the four?
- Did the car belong to John?
- Did everyone get out of the car when the stabbing/fight happened?
- Was anything stolen?
I cannot find anything in the papers about the stabbing, or about witnesses.
- The person who stabbed John, was that the driver or a passenger?
- Was that murder weapon ever found?
- How many times was each person stabbed? Superficially or deep?
- Did John ultimately die of the stabbing wounds or of blood loss?
- Were the other people treated in the same hospital?
If this happened in the drive thru
- Was there a car in line behind John?
- What did the Taco bell employees see, etc?
- Any security camera footage?
- At what time did this happen?
So far, I haven’t been able to find more information in newspaper archives. If you have any links, please let me know.
Contact Information
If you have any information, please contact the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at (614) 525-3333 or submit a tip online at the website of the Ohio Attorney General. The case number is 674.
