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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120239
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RUCKERSVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

GREENE SHERIFF SHOT, WOUNDED; GUNMAN DEAD

A gunman shot and critically wounded Greene County Sheriff William L. Morris on Monday. The man was found dead nearly four hours later after he barricaded himself in his house and held police at bay.

Police identified the gunman as Edward Morris, 52. He was not related to the sheriff.

The sheriff and a deputy were escorting the man's wife to their home on Virginia 629 in Ruckersville when shots were fired about 11 a.m., authorities said. The deputy returned fire but was not injured, police said, and the man's wife was not harmed.

The couple apparently was involved in a domestic dispute Sunday, said state police spokeswoman Mary S. Evans. The man's wife asked for police protection when she attempted to return to the home to collect her belongings, Evans said.

Morris, sheriff since 1983, was shot in the jaw and the shoulder, said Tom Doran, a spokesman at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville, where the sheriff was taken. He was in critical but stable condition.

"The doctor said the wounds are consistent with a .357 [handgun], although he could not be certain," Doran said. "They are monitoring him closely. The doctors say the signs are very good."

Dr. Robert Schwab, an emergency medical specialist, said the 47-year-old Morris was expected to recover fully.

Evans said police fired tear gas into the house but could not get a response. When police entered the house at 3:40 p.m., they found the gunman dead from a gunshot wound, she said. Evans said police were not sure how the man was killed.

by CNB