Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 15, 1994 TAG: 9403150088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: QUANTICO LENGTH: Medium
Gen. M.R. Steele, commanding general of the Quantico Marine Corps Base, issued the order dropping the charge against Lance Cpl. Rayna Ross, and endorsing the recommendation of a military judge.
"Lance Corporal Ross reasonably feared an immediate threat of death or grievous bodily harm, as a result of the actions of Corporal Anthony Goree, when she shot and killed him," Steele wrote in the order.
The military judge criticized both Ross and noncommissioned officers - who were aware of the problems between Ross and Goree - for failing to fully notify their superiors.
Ross testified at an Article 32 hearing in February that she shot Goree when he attacked her in her home June 29. An Article 32 hearing is the military equivalent of a grand jury.
"I didn't have any other choice. I had to protect myself and my daughter," Ross told a military judge considering her case.
Goree allegedly assaulted and threatened her several times in the weeks before the shooting. On June 15, after Goree threatened her with a weapon in her office at the Quantico base, Ross pressed charges, according to testimony.
Goree was placed in the base jail. He was released June 21 after Ross changed her story about the assault at the insistence of Goree's friends. Although ordered to remain on the base, Goree disappeared.
Ross, afraid Goree would come looking for her, began staying at friends' homes. She also bought a .380 semiautomatic handgun and on June 29 returned to her apartment with her 2-year-old daughter.
Goree, 26, broke into her bedroom about 3 a.m., Ross, police and neighbors testified. She said she awoke and grabbed the gun.
Ross' first shot hit Goree in the shoulder. Her second shot, seconds later, hit him in the back.
Goree wore a heavy flight suit and hat and carried a bayonet, said Detective Richard A. Cantorella of the Prince William County Police Department.
"I believe that she would have been seriously injured" if Ross had not shot Goree, Cantorella said.
by CNB