Coroner’s office, deputies investigate rest stop shooting

Staff Reports

Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting ruled the shooting death of a 63-year-old local man at the I-65 northbound rest park early Thursday as a self-inflicted gunshot.

The ruling was made following a forensic autopsy performed Thursday afternoon, the coroner’s office said.

The shooting was reported to the coroner’s office at 6:14 a.m. Thursday after a caller reported hearing a single gunshot at the rest area, Nolting said. The rest area is about three miles south of the Taylorsville/Edinburgh exit.

Nolting went to the Columbus Regional Hospital Emergency Department, where Alvin W. Bickell, 63, of Columbus, had been transported by ambulance and was pronounced dead.

The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office was the primary law enforcement agency investigating the death along with the coroner’s office.