ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603030006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A student at William Fleming High School has been charged with using a chair to club a police officer in the head during a disturbance in the school's cafeteria Thursday.
Roanoke police said M.A. Rayl, a resource officer assigned to work daily at the school, suffered minor cuts and bruises when he was knocked to the floor and then struck in the back of the head with a chair slung by a 16-year-old student.
The 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old male student were charged with assaulting a police officer and disrupting school. Police did not release their names because they are juveniles.
Police gave the following account:
About 12:30 p.m., Rayl and several school officials had just broken up a fight in the cafeteria when the 17-year-old began to jump around and scream obscenities at the officer.
As Rayl approached the boy, the 17-year-old took off his sweat shirt and slung it to the floor, then picked up a chair as if he were going to throw it. When the youth threw the chair to the floor, Rayl approached him a second time and was shoved into a table and chairs, causing him to fall to the floor.
At that point, the 16-year-old came from across the cafeteria and struck Rayl with a chair, knocking him to the floor a second time. Rayl, a security officer and other school officials took the two youths into custody.
The fight apparently started with an argument between the two students over a girl. Rayl's injuries did not require treatment, and he was back on the job Friday.
Fleming Principal Alyce Szathmary said the students are not attending the school and that administrators are considering disciplinary action.
In other police news, a 42-year-old man was shot in the back early Friday outside a nightclub in the 1700 block of Melrose Avenue Northwest. Elbert S. Wilson was treated at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where a nursing supervisor declined to give his condition.
Wilson, of Roanoke, told police that he got into an argument with a man he knew only by nickname shortly after midnight. When he turned to walk away, Wilson was shot in the lower back. He was found lying on the sidewalk in front of the nightclub when police arrived.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB