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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 13, 1994                   TAG: 9412130091
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TEEN CHARGED IN ROBBERY OF TAXI

Tracy D. Thompson, 18, of Greenhurst Avenue, turned himself in to police several hours after he learned they were looking for him.

The cab driver, William Foster Jr., 34, of Westover Avenue Southwest, was cut in the face and hand during the incident. He refused treatment.

Foster told police that he picked up two men around 7:15 a.m. and was told to go to a lot on Salem Turnpike. When he arrived, one of the men grabbed Foster from behind while the other reached across Foster's throat with a knife. Foster was cut as he tried to fend off the attack. The men demanded money and took an undisclosed amount of cash, police said.

Elsewhere, two men told police they were beaten with a pipe wrench by two other men early Saturday. The victims said they were waiting for a cab at 8th Street and Marshall Avenue Southwest. Tommy Robertson, 43, of the 500 block of Allison Avenue Southwest, was struck at least three times before a neighbor's yells prompted the attackers to stop.

Robert Fink, 21, was then struck in the head by the assailants. He told police that he wrestled the wrench from the men and struck one of them. The attackers fled east on Marshall Avenue.

At about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, a 38-year-old Northwest man told police that he was robbed at gunpoint after he left a store in the 1700 block of Melrose Avenue Northwest. About $45 was taken from the victim, who was then ordered to walk north on 17th Street. The victim was not injured.