ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: MONDAY, April 8, 1991                   TAG: 9104080319
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Laurence Hammack
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMAN, 67, ROBBED AS SHE LEFT CHURCH

A 67-year-old woman was knocked to the ground and robbed of her purse outside a Northwest Roanoke church Sunday afternoon.

Alice Powers of Troutville told police that the purse-snatching happened about 12:20 p.m. as she, her husband and another man were walking near the Emmanuel Lutheran Church at Olive Avenue and Palmetto Street.

A man who was jogging nearby suddenly dashed over to Powers and grabbed her purse, police said. Powers hung on and struggled with the man briefly, but was pulled to the ground and dragged a short distance. She hit her head on a car bumper, but apparently was not seriously injured.

The man ran into a nearby alley and fled in a waiting car, taking with him Powers' purse and the $95 that was in it.

In other reports from area police agencies:

A 23-year-old Roanoke woman told police that she was robbed Sunday afternoon by two other women - one of them using a 9-mm handgun. Rhonda Syces of Westside Boulevard Northwest told police that she had pulled into a Ferncliff Avenue parking lot when the women approached her and took her purse at gunpoint. A short time later, one of the women brandished the gun at Syces when they met again at a nearby intersection, she told police.

A 27-year-old Vinton man suffered facial cuts after being punched by a man wearing brass knuckles Sunday night, Roanoke County police said. Troy Allen Baker of the 200 block of Laurel Hill Drive was beaten in front of his residence. He was treated at Community Hospital.

City police broke up a confrontation outside a Williamson Road nightspot early Sunday after some patrons made racial slurs to two passing black men, prompting them to draw weapons and approach the crowd. Police broke up the confrontation before anyone was injured. The two passing men were charged with carrying concealed weapons.

A 23-year-old woman has been charged with arson in connection with a fire that damaged her ex-boyfriend's car. The fire was reported about 2:30 a.m. Saturday in front of a home on the 2900 block of Bluestone Avenue Northeast. Suzette Dance, of 30th Street Northwest, was charged with arson. 


 by CNB