Police investigate fatal shooting in Madison Township

Madison Township police said Thursday they are investigating a “person of interest’’ in the July 27 fatal shooting of a Pataskala man whose death had not previously been reported. Robert J. Miller, 44, was killed on Bixby Road in Madison Township.

A witness driving roughly half a mile behind Miller’s car saw the vehicle swerve and then strike a utility pole around 11:10 p.m. on July 27, said Keith Mallory, a Madison Township police detective.

The car then spun across the road, Mallory said.

Police arrived to find that Miller had been shot more than once, according to warrants filed in Franklin County Municipal Court. Paramedics pronounced Miller dead at the scene.

Mallory said that Miller was alone in the car and a window had been rolled down, suggesting that Miller had been speaking with someone outside the vehicle around the time of the shooting.

Christine King, Miller’s sister, said her brother was at a bar earlier in the evening when he received a call from someone reporting car trouble.

Miller, who was an electrician and spent much of his spare time restoring classic cars, left the bar to help, King said.

“And he never came back,” she said. “He had every intention of coming back that night.” King described her brother as the life of every party he attended.

“He would walk into a room and people would naturally gravitate toward him,” she said.

Miller had five children, King said. The oldest is 25 and the youngest was born just two months ago.

“He loved his kids,” she said. Miller recently started working as a private electrical contractor and planned to start a business, King said. Renovating old cars was his passion, she said, and he recently had restored a 1972 Chevy Chevelle with the help of his father.

“The only thing left was the paint job,” King said.

Police using a search warrant Tuesday recovered evidence, Mallory said. Detectives also filed several search warrants Wednesday seeking records from two cellphones registered to Miller.