ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994                   TAG: 9407080078
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


2 MEN ATTACKED ON SALEM AVE.

One man was stabbed and another badly beaten on West Salem Avenue in Roanoke early Thursday.

Three people were arrested and charged in connection with the incidents.

James F. Wheeler, 24, told police that he was on the 600 block of Salem Avenue Southwest about 12:55 a.m. when three people came by and one stabbed him.

A witness told police he saw a man stab Wheeler as he leaned against a post.

Police said Wheeler was treated at Roanoke Memorial Hospital for a stab wound to his back. A nursing supervisor said there was no record of his admission to the hospital.

Moments after officers found Wheeler, they were told that Johnny Lee Scott had been beaten by the same three people on the 500 block of Salem Avenue Southwest.

Police found Scott, 48, bleeding from the head. He was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital where he remained in very serious condition in the neuro-trauma intensive-care unit.

Police were told that a man had walked near Scott, saying that Scott owed him money. Scott denied owing the man anything.

The man then hit and kicked Scott as a 13-year-old boy joined in the beating, police said. Another man told police that he picked up Scott's duffle bag so the other two would not take it.

Police charged Clarence E. Robertson, 24, of Rutherford Avenue Northwest with robbery and two counts of malicious wounding in connection with the incidents.

David Milton Stokes, 47, of 11th Street Northwest, was charged in the taking of Scott's duffle bag.

The 13-year-old boy will be petitioned to Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on robbery and malicious wounding charges.



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