Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507030045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She could hear a man arguing with her husband on the first floor of her Memorial Avenue Southwest home. Within minutes she heard gunshots. Then there was silence.
Her husband, Randall Carter, 48, had been shot in the head, diaphragm and arm. And the man she heard him arguing with was nowhere to be found.
Before the gunshots, Betty Carter heard a man demanding that her husband give ``it'' to him. Carter believes the man wanted money.
``My husband said, `I can't find it. ... I can't find it. I don't know where it is.'''
Carter said she didn't recognize the other man's voice. Now, she said, she can't forget it.
She had listened, then turned the porch lights on and off to attract attention to her house. But no one noticed. About 2:20 a.m., the arguing erupted into gunfire.
``I heard four gunshots,'' Carter said. ``But I didn't hear Randy's voice anymore.''
Carter ran out her back porch to a neighbor's home on Denniston Avenue Southwest to call police. Now she wonders if she'll ever return.
``I don't think I'll ever go home again,'' she said. ``I couldn't sleep there.''
Police found her husband in a pool of blood between a bedroom and the kitchen.
``He's unconscious,'' she said late Friday. ``He's not expected to make it through the night. The bullet [wound] in his head is fatal and inoperable.''
The gunshots awakened JoAnn Snowden, the Carters' neighbor. She looked out her bedroom window and saw Betty Carter crying as she fled. As Snowden walked to another window, she saw a person running through the alleyway between Brunswick and Memorial avenues. The person wore a T-shirt and jeans and appeared to be a man, she said.
Police say there were no signs of forced entry to the Carters' house in the 2000 block of Memorial Avenue. They would not comment on any suspects.
Maj. J.L. Viar said in a news release that, about the same time Randall Carter was shot, police were called to the emergency room at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley concerning a shooting victim.
Police found Michael James Houser, 24, of Southeast Roanoke suffering from a gunshot wound to his stomach. He was taken to the hospital by a man driving a compact car.
Police said Houser would not answer questions about his injury.
A nursing supervisor said Friday night that Houser was in stable condition.
by CNB