Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 4, 1990                   TAG: 9006040097
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

BEDFORD MAN CHARGED IN SLAYING OF BROTHERS

Earl W. Dooley, a resident of Rain Tree Village apartment complex in the city of Bedford, was charged with murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony in his brother's death, said Bedford City police Sgt. M.D. Massie.

The shooting occurred shortly before 4 a.m. Sunday in Dooley's second floor apartment in section K of the complex along Blue Ridge Avenue. Tunney M. Dooley, 61, of Thaxton, was shot once in the chest with a .22-caliber rifle, Massie said.

Tunney Dooley was airlifted by Lifeguard 10 to Roanoke Memorial Hospital where he died at 6:41 a.m.

Police said Sunday they were unsure what led to the shooting, but were questioning six witnesses.

A neighbor of Earl Dooley, who asked not to be identified, said she awoke early Sunday to what sounded like "a car backfiring."

She said she heard people in his apartment partying late into the night - which she considered a weekend custom in that apartment. "There were people in there banging around and knocking around," she said.

For years, the Dooleys had a "family conflict" and Earl Dooley had a "violent temper," she said.

But four of Dooley's neighbors and friends, gathered in a nearby apartment Sunday afternoon, said Earl Dooley's temper was no different than anyone else's.

"When you do something wrong, Earl's got a bad temper just like anybody," said Roger Bennett. "Look at what he did - he called the lifesaving crew for his brother."

"If it happened, it was in self-defense," Bennett said. Bennett said Earl Dooley was a kind-hearted, "happy-go-lucky" man who, at times, had helped supply Bennett's family with groceries and had changed "many of my diapers" years ago.

Neither Bennett nor Calvin Junior Carter saw the shooting.

Carter, who lives on the third floor of the building, slept through the shooting and the arrival of Lifeguard 10. The helicopter landed in near some dumpsters in the apartment complex parking lot - a few yards from Earl Dooley's pick-up truck.

Aside from Tunney, Earl Dooley had a brother and a sister, his friends said. The Dooleys grew up on Taylor's Mountain. In the year and a half that Earl Dooley lived in his apartment, Tunney Dooley had never before come by, Earl's friends said.

Unable to work because of a physical problems, Earl Dooley supported himself with disability checks, they said.

Sunday night, Earl Dooley was being held in Bedford County Jail. His bond is set at $10,000 cash or surety bond.