Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 8, 1994 TAG: 9406080098
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Angela Shepherd said the incident escalated after a man pushed his way into her second-floor apartment on the 2600 block of Westover Avenue Southwest about 8:30 a.m. Shepherd said the man shoved her to the floor and pinned her to the ground with his legs. As the man attempted to use a condom, Shepherd said she shot him.
"He was already on top of me when I got my gun out and shot," she said. "I didn't even know I shot him. He said something. But I don't know what he said. Then he got up and ran out. I didn't see any blood anywhere."
Jean W. Bosue was recovering with a gunshot wound to his left side at Roanoke Memorial Hospital late Tuesday. Roanoke police said the wound was not life-threatening. Police said they have filed a warrant against Bosue and will issue it when he is released from the hospital.
In late May, Bosue fled Haiti on a refugee boat and was brought to the United States after he was picked up at sea, according to Barbara Smith, director of the Refugee and Immigration Services Office, a branch of the Richmond Catholic Diocese that helped place Bosue in Roanoke.
He spent some time in Miami before he and another Haitian refugee flew to Roanoke on Friday, Smith said. Bosue and the other man were offered a temporary stay at the home of one of the office's caseworkers, who lives across the hall from Shepherd.
Smith said Bosue was extensively interviewed by federal agents before he was given status as a legal alien. He has one year to petition the federal government for political asylum.
Shepherd said she first saw Bosue around 10 p.m. Monday when she was in the laundry room. She said Bosue and another man were making sexual gestures at her through the window, beckoning for her to come outside. She said she told her husband and the three men exchanged words.
About 8:25 a.m. Tuesday, the victim's husband, Joseph Shepherd, left for work. Angela Shepherd said she later opened her door to let her cat in. At the same time, Bosue opened his apartment door and began taunting her. She said she was frightened, closed the door and armed herself with a .25-caliber automatic handgun, which she placed in her left pocket.
A few moments later, she said, she opened the door again and Bosue pushed his way into the apartment. After she shot him, Bosue fled and she locked her door. Police found Bosue on Westover Drive, bleeding from his side.
"I saw the man on Westover," said Joseph Shepherd. "When I tried to get into my apartment it was locked and someone said something was wrong with my wife. When I went inside, I found her against a wall with the gun by her side."
The Shepherds and several neighbors said that there often are disorderly incidents in the area of their apartments, a cul-de-sac at the end of Westover Avenue.
Sara and Mark Dean, who live in a basement apartment, agreed that there are problems but said they are intermittent. They said they had not had any trouble with Bosue or the other man staying in the apartment building.
"You get what you get with working-class people," Sara Dean said. "Everyone gets a little squirrely when they get their paycheck on Friday night."
by CNB