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

DATE: TUESDAY, January 3, 1995                   TAG: 9501040050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

WOMAN REPORTS BEING RAPED, THREATENED WITH BEING SHOT

The woman told police she had been to a private club on Patterson Avenue Northwest with a male friend, and decided to leave about 3 a.m., according to Roanoke police. When the woman couldn't find her friend, a man approached her and said the friend had sent him to give her a ride. When she got into the man's car, the man locked the door, drove her to his apartment and forced her inside, the release said.

The man raped and beat the woman, and then put her in his car, saying he was going to drive her home, police said. However, the man forced her out of the car on Melrose Avenue Northwest and told her to run, because he was going to shoot her.

The woman told police about the rape when they found her running down the road.

No arrests had been made Monday evening. The woman was taken to Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley for treatment and examination.

Also over the weekend, the Revco Drug Store on 19th Street Northwest was robbed, according to the same police news release.

Lois Burnette, a clerk at the store, said she and another employee, Jim Byrd, let a man into the store when he rang the door buzzer about 8:30 a.m. Saturday because they thought he was a delivery driver, police said.

The man, who was wearing a mask and gloves, hit Burnette with a gun, forced Byrd to the rear of the store, and took the money from the safe, police said.