Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 12, 1991 TAG: 9104121034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK and RON BROWN/ STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Retisia Yamon Washington and her mother, Latashia, apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight as they walked on 15th Street Northwest near the park, police said today.
Latashia Washington told police that she and her daughter were walking on the sidewalk, near the park's basketball courts, at 8:48 p.m. when gunfire erupted.
As she reached down to grab her child, Washington told police, she saw that the 3-year-old was crying and bleeding from her leg.
The bullet struck Retisia in her upper right thigh and exited through the back of her leg, police said. Latashia Washington then rushed her child to the hospital.
A police spokesman said today that a man who had parked his car near the spot where Retisia was shot may have been the intended target.
Latashia Washington told police that the first shots seemed to come from a hill in the park. Shots apparently were then returned from a lower area of the park, police said.
There have been no arrests, and an investigation is continuing.
It was the second time in two months that a child was struck by street-side gunfire in Roanoke.
Moneka Small, 4, was grazed in the face by a bullet as she ran for safety after a daytime gunfight broke out near the Hurt Park housing project in February. She was walking with her mother and 3-year-old brother.
Judge Thomas, 33, a former high school football star, and a 17-year-old boy have been charged with malicious wounding in that shooting.
by CNB