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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 20, 1990                   TAG: 9006200398
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DANVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

POLICE OFFICER NOT CHARGED IN FATALITY

A grand jury said there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against a police officer whose cruiser struck and killed a 12-year-old girl.

"It's still a tragic happening any way you look at it," Danville police Chief Neal Morris said Tuesday after the special Circuit Court grand jury affirmed the findings of his department's investigation.

Janis M. Emerson was trying to cross the street to get to a school bus earlier this month when the cruiser driven by Officer L.E. Johns hit her. She died the next day.

The school bus driver said Johns could not avoid hitting the girl, who reportedly looked straight ahead and walked into the street.

- Associated Press

by CNB