Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405290058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Officer J.L. Goad was shot in the lower right leg.
Goad, who was hospitalized overnight, and Sgt. R.L. Hague had gone to Kevin Scott Darling's home on Longview Avenue as part of a robbery investigation.
The series of events that ended with Darling dead began shortly before 6 a.m. when the manager of the Crown American gas station on Franklin Road arrived at work.
Manager Joseph Shepherd found the 24-hour station unstaffed and the cash register empty.
Also missing was worker Darling.
Shepherd called police about the missing money and worker. He told them someone had tried to open the office safe.
Darling lived with a female companion and their baby on the second floor in the center building of Colonial House Condominiums, about a half-mile from the gas station.
The officers said they knocked on the door to Darling's apartment and identified themselves as police, but got no answer. They then knocked on the door of photographer Sarah Hazlegrove's apartment across the hall and asked if she knew anything about Darling.
While they were talking with Hazlegrove, police heard noise from the Darling apartment, so they returned to knock on Darling's door and asked to speak to him.
Darling's answer was to open the door and begin firing.
When the officers retreated, Darling followed Goad into the stairwell to the third floor of the building, still firing, police said. After wounding Goad, Darling went back into his apartment and locked the door.
The officers, who never fired any shots, called for assistance. When help arrived the building was evacuated, and Goad was taken to the hospital. Police used body shields to protect Hazlegrove and her son as they brought them from the building.
Police said they then got warrants for Darling's arrest for attempted capital murder of a police officer and returned to try to get him to open the apartment door. When there was no response, they broke into the apartment.
Darling was found dead in a bedroom.
Darling's semiautomatic pistol was lying near his body, police said. Also in the apartment were two 30-round bullet clips taped together in a way that allowed one to be fired immediately after the other.
The only clue to why Darling acted as he did was in a message he left on the screen of his computer, but police did not release the contents of the message.
It was after 2 p.m. before Darling's body was removed and residents were allowed to return to their apartments.
A new door was needed on Hazlegrove's apartment. She said that was being installed late Saturday.
Bits of plaster gouged from the walls by bullets littered the foyer in front of her door.
Hazlegrove said she had gone to the kitchen to make coffee after talking with the officers when she heard the shooting.
"I thought the officers were splattered," she said.
She said she did not know Darling or his family, but she had spoken with the woman's mother Saturday evening and learned that the woman and the baby were safe.
Hazlegrove said police told her that Darling's parents live in Texas and had been told of his death.
The woman who lived with Darling was not identified, but the names J. English and K. Darling were taped on the apartment's mailbox.
Phyllis Overstreet, who lived in a basement apartment in the building, said she had only met the couple and their baby on Mother's Day.
"He said the baby was 11 days old," she said.
Overstreet said the couple moved into Colonial House around April 1.
Darling had worked at Crown American just one week, said James Sharper, territory manager for Crown.
"From what the manager and I know he was a happy person. He was real customer service-oriented," Sharper said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB