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

DATE: THURSDAY, November 2, 1995                   TAG: 9511020092
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

2 TEENS SUSPECTED IN SCHOOL SHOOTING

A judge gave police permission Wednesday to release the names of two teen-age suspects in a shooting at a Richmond high school because authorities have been unable to find them.

The Henrico County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court issued juvenile petitions charging Landon T. Rogers, 16, and Edward E. Briley, 17, with four counts each of aggravated malicious wounding and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Henrico Police Chief Henry W. Stanley said both teen-agers are believed to have fired shots Monday as students left John F. Kennedy High School on the eastern side of Richmond. Four students were wounded; one student remains hospitalized in stable condition.

Henrico police are investigating the shootings because Kennedy, a Richmond public school with 800 students, is in adjacent Henrico County.

Authorities said the boys are often seen in the Fairfield Court area, one of two public housing developments near the school. Stanley said at a news conference Wednesday evening that he did not know if the two were enrolled in school.

Richmond City Manager Robert Bobb said investigators are frustrated at a ``code of silence'' that has helped shield the boys.

``The important thing is that the law enforcement community cannot break this case until people in this community break their so-called `code of silence.' Nobody in that community can tell me tonight that they don't know where these two people are.''

``The shootings occurred Monday ... Here we are on Wednesday, almost Thursday, and we still do not have those individuals in custody for shooting our children,'' Bobb said.

Unnamed neighborhood sources told the Richmond Times-Dispatch for a story in Wednesday's editions that the shooting was the latest battle in a new war between gangs from Fairfield and Whitcomb Court. Monday's shooting victims are all from Whitcomb.

Authorities at the news conference declined to comment on any possible motives for the shooting.

Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Toby Vick said he will attempt to convene a grand jury from Richmond and Henrico to prosecute the case.

by CNB