Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 5, 1993 TAG: 9301050243
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GUNFIRE INTERRUPTS NEW YEAR'S PARTY
A gang of armed men interrupted a New Year's celebration at a Southwest Roanoke house, sending frightened occupants scurrying to the roof while the men riddled an apartment with gunfire.Roanoke police were told that seven men broke through the front door leading to an apartment on Howbert Avenue Southwest at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The men said they were looking for another man and demanded that he be turned over to them.
One of the gunmen had been involved in a fight with the man about a week earlier at a convenience store, witnesses told police.
The gunmen found another man, Gerald R. Guilliams, hiding in a closet. One of the intruders held a .9mm pistol to his head and demanded that he tell them where they could find the man they were seeking.
Police said Guilliams was struck in the forehead with the butt of the gun. He declined treatment.
Meanwhile, the other people in the apartment worked their way to the attic, crawled out a window and got on the roof.
Witnesses told police they heard several shots in the living room. The walls of the apartment contained several bullet holes, police said.
In other police reports:
Bonnie Sue LaPrad, 30, was getting into her car in the parking lot of a Southeast Roanoke drug store when a man jumped in, held a knife to her throat and ordered her to drive to a nearby alley. She managed to get away, jumped out of the car and ran.
Terry Donnell Hash, 28, of King Charles Avenue Southeast, wrestled a gun away from a would-be assailant. Hash fired the gun twice to keep the man away. The gun then had no more shells. The man picked up a rock and hit Hash in the head. Edmund Jenkins was charged with malicious wounding and brandishing a firearm.
A chase with his pit bull ended in a malicious wounding and a harboring a dangerous dog charge against Frank Douglas Campbell Jr., 35, of Rorer Avenue. Police said they saw a man and a dog running after two men on Marshall Avenue on New Year's morning. One of the men had been bitten in the back. The other had been hit in the arm with a wine bottle.