Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993 TAG: 9309040105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Craig Allen Smith, 22, of Greenbelt, Md., was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of his live-in girlfriend, Cynthia Marie Wilkinson, 24, police said.
Wilkinson was shot Thursday morning with a shotgun. A friend of Wilkinson's escaped by jumping out a second-story window, police said. She ran to a neighbor's home to call police, but police said that when they arrived, Smith was armed with a shotgun and refused to come out.
Police negotiating by phone with Smith could not to persuade him to surrender, said Sgt. Alan Day. About 2:30 p.m., they decided to use a 3-foot tall, 480-pound remote-controlled robot to enter the apartment, Day said.
The robot, which often is used by the Prince George's County, Md., Fire Department to disarm explosive devices, found Smith hiding in a bedroom closet underneath a pile of clothes. The robot, transmitting the scene to police by a television camera, opened the closet door and removed the clothes, Day said.
Smith grabbed the clothes from the robot and began to cover himself with them once again, Day said.
Acting on the remote-control directions of a technician, the robot then used a high-pressure water gun to knock the shotgun out of Smith's hands and disorient him, enabling the police department's version of a SWAT team to arrest Smith, said Cpl. Keith Evans, a department spokesman.
The Prince George's County Fire Department bought the robot, known as Remote Mobile Investigator-9 - RMI-9 for short - seven years ago for $45,000.
Capt. Victor Stagnaro, a Fire Department spokesman, said it was the first time police had used RMI-9 to catch a suspect.
by CNB