Sally Fraizer is speaking publicly about the day her father was shot and killed at a Lebanon intersection during a road rage confrontation, more than two years after a Warren County grand jury declined to indict the man who pulled the trigger. Andrew Rainey, 63, died on June 17, 2024, after a dispute at the intersection of State Route 48 Bypass and U.S. Route 42 ended in gunfire. His daughter's account, shared in a video, revisits a case that closed without any criminal charges against the shooter.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Fraizer reflected on losing her father in the shooting near Lebanon. The confrontation unfolded quickly: the other driver called 911 himself immediately after the shooting, telling dispatchers he had shot a man, and he waited by his vehicle with his gun holstered until officers arrived, according to a detailed account posted to a Cincinnati-area community forum shortly after the incident.
More than a year later, on July 26, 2024, a Warren County grand jury declined to indict the driver, closing the door on any criminal prosecution in Rainey's death. The decision hinged on conflicting testimony from the scene. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said all seven eyewitnesses agreed that Rainey exited his car and approached the other driver's Mazda Miata, but their accounts diverged sharply on Rainey's demeanor and physical actions in the moments before the shooting, as reported by WHIO TV.
How Ohio's Self-Defense Law Shaped the Outcome
The lack of an indictment traces directly to changes in Ohio's self-defense statute. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2901.05, criminal defendants no longer carry the burden of proving self-defense; once a defendant introduces initial evidence supporting a self-defense claim, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person did not act in self-defense, according to CCW Hub. That shift in the burden of proof made the conflicting eyewitness testimony fatal to any potential case.
A separate provision compounded the challenge for prosecutors. Ohio Revised Code § 2901.05(B)(2) creates a statutory presumption that a driver acted in self-defense when using defensive force against someone who unlawfully enters or attempts to forcefully enter their occupied vehicle, per the same legal analysis. With eyewitnesses unable to agree on whether Rainey's approach to the Miata met that threshold, prosecutors were left without the clear evidence needed to overcome the presumption and secure an indictment.
Had the case gone differently, Ohio law prescribes severe penalties for gun violence in vehicles. Discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle is a second-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code § 2923.161 and § 2929.14, carrying a mandatory two-to-eight-year prison sentence, with an additional mandatory consecutive five-year term if the shot is fired from inside a vehicle, as Hoodline has reported on Ohio gun laws. None of those penalties applied here because the grand jury never returned charges.
A Life Rooted in Lebanon
Rainey was a lifelong Lebanon resident who owned Rainey's Property Management LLC, a graduate of Lebanon High School and Sinclair Community College, and a member of Lebanon Presbyterian Church for 25 years, according to his obituary published by Stine Funeral Home of Lebanon. Those ties to the community underscore why his daughter's decision to speak publicly, years after the shooting, has drawn renewed attention to a case that many in the area still remember.
A Statewide Pattern of Rising Road Rage
Rainey's death is not an isolated data point. Ohio State Highway Patrol figures showed a 13% increase in reported road rage incidents across the state between 2021 and early 2026, according to WHIO TV. A separate analysis of Gun Violence Archive data found that the annual number of Ohio road rage incidents involving firearms more than tripled over the decade leading up to 2024, as reported by Axios Columbus.
That trend stands in contrast to Ohio's overall traffic safety numbers. Traffic fatalities statewide fell by roughly 3% in 2025 compared to the prior year, marking the fourth consecutive year of declining traffic deaths, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. Even as roads have grown safer overall, confrontations like the one that killed Rainey point to a narrower but escalating danger tied specifically to armed disputes between drivers.
