Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 20, 1992 TAG: 9203200117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
In a case that has stunned even this violence-plagued community, an 18-year-old stands accused of killing a man simply for the thrill of committing the city's first murder of 1992.
According to police officers, witnesses say 18-year-old Montique Ramon Brown randomly shot and killed a passerby just five minutes after midnight on Jan. 1.
Dennis Rock, 35, a well-liked and steady worker for a temporary employment agency, was shot near his South Richmond home. A former co-worker recalled that Rock had been working overtime just days earlier to buy a Christmas bike for his son.
Brown, who surrendered this week, was in the city jail Thursday awaiting an April 15 hearing. An interview request was turned down by a sheriff's office employee, who said the facility was too overcrowded to accommodate reporters.
Brown's arrest prompted expressions of dismay from city officials and community leaders, already aghast at the violence that claimed 116 lives in the city last year. Almost all of those deaths occurred in poor, black neighborhoods, and drugs were a factor in many.
But drugs apparently were not the cause of Rock's death, said Police Chief Marty Tapscott. Instead, the killing reflected "a senseless, total disregard for human life."
"I don't want to indicate that this is widespread," added Tapscott. "But he's not the only one out there with that attitude toward life."
Several witnesses apparently have testified to Brown's alleged motivation, and their information "appears to be pretty solid," he said.
Tapscott and other police said they know little of Brown. He had several brushes with the law as a juvenile, and reportedly lived with a grandmother, they said.
Brown also was charged this week with felonious assault in a Dec. 30 case in which the victim was shot in the face but lived.
by CNB