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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140297
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: AMELIA                                LENGTH: Short

HOSTAGE-TAKING FIRST ARREST FOR 16-YEAR-OLD/

A teen-ager who said he was mistreated by his parents had never been in trouble with the law before taking eight people hostage at a variety store, authorities said Wednesday.

The 16-year-old gunman told hostages he walked and hitchhiked to the store from his home in adjacent Cumberland County.

Authorities would not identify the youth, who held hostages for six hours Tuesday at the Super Saver discount store. Nobody was injured.

Amelia County Sheriff James Weaver said the boy was held Wednesday at Crater Detention Center in Prince George County. He said a hearing was set today in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

The youth faces eight counts of abduction and one count each of armed robbery, use of a firearm in a felony and discharging a firearm in an occupied structure.

But Eula Mavin, a store clerk who was the next-to-last hostage released, said robbery was not the youngster's motive.

"It was attention," she said. "He said he wanted all the TV stations there, and all the radio stations."

Weaver said the boy "apparently had an unhappy home life" and refused to see his parents after being arrested.

by CNB