Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992 TAG: 9203110137
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Residents of the 1200 block of Lafayette Boulevard Northwest heard a shot and then a crash as construction laborer Terry Wayne Anderson's pickup slammed into a parked car about 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Carolyn Ferrell, whose parked 1978 Thunderbird was hit head-on by Anderson, was in the basement when she heard a gunshot, then the crash. "I mean, loud," she said of the crash. "Almost like thunder."
She ran upstairs and called 911.
At first, she said, neighbors, police and rescue workers assumed Anderson had died from crash injuries. The small red pickup he was driving came down an incline in pouring rain, she said. It sideswiped one car and then pushed hers up the street a few yards before coming to a halt.
Later, at the Community Hospital emergency room, medical workers found the bullet wound in Anderson's left armpit and alerted police.
Dr. David Oxley, chief deputy medical examiner for Southwest Virginia, said Anderson died from a bullet that tore into his lungs and heart. Police said the driver's window apparently was down.
Saturday, Anderson's mother, Mary Martin-Nunn; one of his brothers; a sister-in-law; and an aunt drove to Roanoke to see where Anderson died and to talk with people living nearby.
Martin-Nunn said people on Lafayette Boulevard were sympathetic. They gave her all the help they could, but some seemed frightened.
Kim Allen, Anderson's aunt, said that when they knocked on doors, some residents first disengaged several locks on their front doors - evidence, Allen said, of their fears of drug dealers in the area.
"I'm going to find out who did this," said Martin-Nunn. "I will find them, if it takes me the rest of my life. They don't know what they've done to me. They've ripped my heart out."
Apparently, Anderson drifted a ways in the truck after he was shot. He died shortly before the truck crashed, Oxley said. Anderson's family said police still have the truck.
Roanoke Police Lt. William J. Beason Jr. said Anderson may have been shot near the 1000 block of Lafayette. He said there has been drug dealing along that stretch of Lafayette in the past. Neighbors confirmed this week that drugs are sold around there.
There have been no arrests in the shooting.
Martin-Nunn thinks her son was heading home using a popular shortcut to Interstate 81, perhaps from an auto parts store in Northwest Roanoke. There are several along Melrose Avenue near Lafayette.
Anderson, who lived with his mother and stepfather, attended Christiansburg High School.
He had worked for four years with his stepfather, a brick mason, for a small Roanoke contractor. They had left a home-construction job in Salem early Friday because of the rain and drove home to Christiansburg.
Family members said Anderson was paid that day. They said he borrowed his stepfather's truck and left for Roanoke between 4:30 and 5 to buy parts for his 1978 Jeep. "He said he would be back at 7:30," said his mother.
Les Dickerson, a backyard mechanic who works at Thompson Tire in Christiansburg, said Anderson came by the tire store about 4:30. In his spare time at home, Dickerson was installing an engine in Anderson's Jeep. Anderson wanted to know what parts Dickerson needed to get it running.
Dickerson told him a flywheel, a bell housing and a couple of motor mounts. They would cost $100 to $150, and Anderson had the money, Dickerson said.
Anderson, who was alone, said he knew where he could get them, but he didn't mention a particular place. He promised to bring the parts by Dickerson's house about 7 that night and they would work on the Jeep Saturday afternoon. "He was going to drive it away from here Sunday," Dickerson said.
Anderson's mother doesn't know if he ever bought the parts. She said his wallet was empty when police found his body, and $27 was found crumpled in his pocket. Beason said no Jeep parts were in the truck.
Seven auto parts dealers interviewed this week could not recall seeing Anderson, but some said business often is so hectic they might have forgotten. A dealer on 30th Street Northwest said a man came in Friday asking about a flywheel and bell housing, but he couldn't recall anything about him.
Martin-Nunn said her son was crazy about machines. He took her upright vacuum cleaner apart when he was 3 years old, and put it back together a few years ago.
Keywords:
ROMUR FATALITY
by CNB