Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Long
Officer John Anthony Goad was in stable condition in Pulaski Community Hospital Thursday afternoon, a nursing supervisor said. He suffered severe cuts to the back of his head and his inner right forearm, police said. Goad, 22, had joined the town police force in March.
Kevin Bradley May, 29, of Draper, has been charged with malicious wounding of a police officer, resisting arrest, and breaking and entering with the intent to commit malicious wounding. He is being held without bond in the Pulaski County Jail. An arraignment is scheduled for Monday in Pulaski County General District Court. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 30.
Susan Jones, May's former girlfriend, had filed charges against May several times. The latest charges of stalking and using obscene language over the phone were originally scheduled to be heard Thursday, but May's attorney had recently received a continuance until January. Jones had received a protective order Dec. 6 to keep May away from her after entering a charge of spousal abuse.
That same day, the court also ordered May to pay $66 a week in child support for their 31/2-year-old son.
Minutes after midnight Thursday, Pulaski police received a call from Jones reporting that May was attempting to break into her Fourth Street apartment.
Jones stayed on the phone the entire time with newly hired dispatcher Kirk Hendricks. Police Chief Herb Cooley credited Hendricks for his level-headed performance as he calmed the woman while simultaneously sending officers to the apartment to help her.
"She was screaming, telling the dispatchers she saw the officers," while the drama played itself out.
Goad and other officers went to the apartment building, where they found May between two locked doors, according to Cooley. As officers tried to get through the first door to May, he was trying to kick in the second door, which led into Jones' apartment, Cooley said.
The officers kicked in the first door, and Goad, the first officer to enter, "was immediately confronted by Mr. May who was armed with a knife," according to a police news release.
Goad was going to use pepper spray on May, but did not have time, according to a report written by Sgt. E.T. Montgomery, who was at the scene.
"He [May] just wheeled on him [Goad], and he [May] cut his arm. Goad spun around and he [May] cut him in the back of the head," Cooley said.
The officers were afraid to shoot for fear their bullets would hit someone other than May, the chief said. Cooley said May was lucky to be alive and that his officers showed remarkable restraint.
During the confrontation, Montgomery took a baton and knocked out a picture window that Jones, her son and Jones' friend Danny Draper were standing behind to get them out of the area.
As Montgomery and another officer tried to take May into custody, May said "Someone's going to die tonight," Montgomery wrote in his report. May then kicked Jones' door open and entered the apartment, according to police.
As officers followed him into the apartment, they ordered May to the floor and to drop the knife, Montgomery wrote. "May began to walk toward us stating 'Kill me.'"
A Pulaski County deputy used pepper spray but it had no effect on May, Montgomery wrote.
May, still armed with the knife, came outside, police said.
The deputy hit May's hand with his baton and May dropped the knife but started back toward the apartment, Montgomery wrote.
May said he had a gun, and officers saw him put his left hand in his pants pocket, as if trying to remove something, Montgomery wrote.
The deputy struck at May again with the baton, accidentally hitting him in the head, Montgomery wrote.
May was taken into custody and handcuffed. Officers found another pocket knife but no gun in the pocket where May had reached when he said he had a gun, according to Montgomery.
May was treated in Pulaski Community Hospital and stayed for several hours, Cooley said.
Thursday wasn't the first time May has been involved in a confrontation with officers, according to court records.
He was convicted in 1992 of causing bodily injury to an employee of a correctional facility while a prisoner. In a plea agreement, May was ordered to serve 12 months of a four-year sentence and was placed on active, supervised probation for two years.
He was released from probation in May. May has been convicted of several traffic charges, including driving under the influence and driving while his license was revoked, and is considered an habitual offender. He faces a charge in January of leaving the scene of an accident.
The attack on Goad comes just more than a week after Wythe County Deputy Cliff Dicker was killed while taking a teen-age boy into custody. Dicker was the second New River Valley officer to be slain in the line of duty in less than three months. In September, Christiansburg Officer Terry Griffith was shot and killed with his service revolver as he struggled with a suspected shoplifter from West Virginia.
"It's crazy out there," Cooley said Thursday morning, as Jones' anguished, panicked voice could be heard for several minutes on the 911 tape that was being replayed in the next office.
"You like to blame the Interstate, but none of these were. All three of these were from within. I guess if you're going to blame somebody you have to blame the system that keeps putting these people on the street time after time," Cooley said.
by CNB