Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 6, 1993 TAG: 9306060094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The .357-Magnum pistol was one of 10 guns stolen from a Catawba residence on Oct. 27, said Roanoke County Police Investigator David Wells.
During that burglary more than $12,000 worth of items were taken, including guns, camcorders, VCRs and jewelry.
Two Roanoke men have been charged with breaking and entering and grand larceny in connection with the burglary. Christopher Karroll Morris, 19, has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Julian Glenn Benoit, 21, was indicted by a grand jury on Friday and is awaiting trial.
Wells said the guns were taken out of state and sold after the burglary. He declined to say whether Morris and Benoit were involved in the sale of the guns.
Law-enforcement officials said that Thursday, Al-Damanay Kamau, 25, came up behind detective John Sczyrek in an Essex County, N.J., courtroom and shot him in the head with the pistol. He then shot and wounded a sheriff's officer and fled down a stairwell, firing at another sheriff's officer before reaching the street. He was captured a few blocks away after a foot chase.
The wounded officer was shot in the chest but is expected to recover.
The detective who was shot, Sczyrek, had been scheduled to testify against Charles Oliver and Darryl Hill, who were on trial on possession of drugs and weapons.
Oliver was identified Friday as a brother of the gunman, Kamau, who changed his name from Eddie Lee Oliver.
On Friday, an employee of New Jersey Superior Court was charged with smuggling the gun that killed Sczyrek into the courthouse just before the trial was due to begin. She was the girlfriend of one of the defendants in the drug case.
Police have said that several of the guns stolen in the Catawba burglary were also used in an Oct. 31 armed robbery in Athol, Mass.
Randall Cofske, who used to live in Roanoke, has been charged with that armed robbery.
New York Times News Service provided information for this story.
by CNB