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

DATE: SATURDAY, April 1, 1995                   TAG: 9504030050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE MAN CHARGED AFTER PIT BULL INCIDENT

Roanoke police have charged a 21-year-old Northwest Roanoke man with malicious wounding and five counts of attempted malicious wounding, alleging he turned his pit bull on a citizen and five vice officers late Thursday.

William Larry Jamison, 40, was treated at Roanoke Memorial Hospital for four puncture wounds to his upper left leg. None of the police officers was injured.

Police gave this account of what happened:

At 10:43 p.m., Jamison was walking in the 2900 block of Centre Avenue Northwest when a man got out of a car and turned a pit bull loose. The dog attacked Jamison.

Several vice officers who were in the area tried to stop the attack. When an officer fired at the animal, the dog and man fled. A short while later, vice officers arrested Jerome Bernard Smith, 21, of the 900 block of Fairfax Avenue Northwest. Smith was in jail late Friday without bond.

The dog, which was injured, was found in the 2500 block of Shenandoah Avenue Northwest. The animal was euthanized because of its injuries.

Police believe the dog also was involved in a biting incident in Melrose Park on Jan. 17. On that date, a pit bull got into a fight with another dog and bit a woman, police said. She was treated at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley.

Police on Friday charged the dog's owner, Gloria Day of the 1400 block of Melrose Avenue Northwest, with failure to have her dog vaccinated for rabies and failure to have a city dog license.

by CNB