ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 26, 1993                   TAG: 9305260141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

POLICE SAY SHOOTING ON EXPRESSWAY MAY HAVE BEEN GUN BATTLE

An incident Sunday on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway that took two suspects all the way into the hills near Clinchco may have been a gun battle and not a one-sided attack, state police said.

Police had said two men in a custom-painted blue pickup truck shot at two men in a red pickup as both vehicles drove onto Virginia 44. The driver slumped into the passenger's seat and the passenger managed to stop the truck.

Evidence now suggests the men in the red pickup either may have fired first or returned the fire. The driver of the red truck, Dwight M. Woodyard III, 18, of Suffolk was the only person reported injured. He was in stable condition Tuesday with bullet wounds to the neck and face.

Police on Tuesday arrested the blue truck's occupants, two 19-year-old Navy men, charging one of them with shooting Woodyard and the other with being an accessory to the crime. Police identified the men as James K. Swiney of Virginia Beach, who police say fired his 10mm handgun at least five times into the second pickup; and Christopher I. Kemp of Norfolk. Kemp was the driver and owner of the truck.

After the shooting, the men drove Kemp's truck to Swiney's father's gun shop in Clinchco to escape mounting police and media attention, said state police spokeswoman Rebecca Feaster. They drove Swiney's car back to Hampton Roads. Police found the truck and the 10mm gun in Clinchco.

On Sunday, police found a .25-caliber handgun beside the highway near the scene of the shooting. Feaster said the gun had been thrown from the red pickup truck that was, on Sunday, occupied by Woodyard and Mark E. Trump, 21, also of Suffolk.

This is how police said it all started:

About midnight Saturday, Woodyard and Kemp were walking on Atlantic Avenue with some female friends when Swiney and Kemp drove past them. Swiney and Kemp apparently said something to the women and Woodyard and Trump interceded. The four men yelled at each other and Woodyard and Kemp left the area.

Three hours later, Woodyard and Trump got into their red pickup to drive back to Suffolk. As they drove onto the expressway, Swiney and Kemp drove by.

That's when the shooting started, police said. 


 by CNB