Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 7, 1990 TAG: 9007070216
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: IRONTO LENGTH: Medium
Deputy Robert F. Fleet, struck in the neck by a bullet, was in good condition Friday evening, according to a spokeswoman at Radford Community Hospital. Fleet underwent exploratory surgery late Friday afternoon.
He was the first Montgomery County deputy to be wounded by gunshot since 1975, said Sheriff Louis Barber.
Fleet, 34, was able to walk away from the Ironto house just off Virginia 647 after he was hit by a bullet from a small-caliber, semiautomatic rifle. With his neck still bleeding, he ordered the occupants out of the house and arrested Jerry Ray Brandau, 26, of Elliston.
Brandau was charged with attempted capital murder and use of a firearm in the commission of an attempted murder.
Fleet handcuffed Brandau and put him on the tailgate of a pickup truck and watched him while he and his partner got the bleeding under control, Barber said.
Brandau's wife, Betty, also was in the house at the time of the shooting. She was not charged.
Fleet and Sheriff's Deputy Lloyd Heslip arrived at the house, located on Route 1, just after 10 a.m. to execute a Circuit Court eviction order, Barber said.
"The two deputies went in two marked vehicles and announced themselves a number of times," Barber said. "They knocked a number of times and finally tried to force the door open."
At first, there was no response from inside the two-story house, which was surrounded by overgrown weeds and thistles. Windows in the front and back were blocked by strips of cardboard. "No Trespassing" was scrawled in blue spray paint across the back of the house.
When Fleet bent down with a crowbar to try to remove a throw-rug that was jamming the front door, eight shots were fired from inside the house, Barber said.
Several of the bullets lodged in the wood that surrounded the front door. One of them hit Fleet.
Lola Dove, Brandau's grandmother, said her grandson told her Friday afternoon that the deputies had scared him.
"He said they kicked the door down," she said. "His wife ran to the bathroom, screaming. He just grabbed the gun and shot. He didn't know what he was doing.
"I would have done the same thing if someone kicked my door down."
Dove said Brandau takes medicine for epilepsy that sometimes makes him drowsy.
"Sometimes he works until 2 in the morning" as a driver for Porterfield Distributing Co. in Salem, she said. "He's sort of a nervous-acting person. He's not violent. His nerves were bad."
Betty Tolley, Brandau's mother, said her son had been trying for months to raise enough money to buy the house that his grandfather had once owned.
"He wants that place so bad," she said. "It means a whole lot to him. It's the only place he remembers living."
Brandau had made a 10 percent down payment - $2,400 - on the house, but his loan for the rest had fallen through, she said.
The property reverted back to Donald Tolley, Betty Tolley's ex-husband.
Betty Tolley said her son always tried to impress people, especially his former stepfather. "He had a temper like all of them, but he was no problem," she said.
But Donald Tolley, Brandau's stepfather, said he expected problems when he went with the deputies and several friends to evict his stepson from the house, which was auctioned off in October 1989 after he and Betty Tolley were divorced.
"He was supposed to be out the first of June," Tolley said. "This was our last attempt to move him out. I told them [the officers] to expect trouble."
Barber said his department fielded dozens of calls from sheriffs, deputies and police all over Southwest Virginia asking about Fleet's condition.
Fleet is married and has three children. He has been on the force for 13 years.
Brandau was released from Montgomery County jail Friday evening after posting bond, which had been placed at $150,000 in cash or $250,000 in property.
by CNB