ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996                 TAG: 9604020067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI 

GIRL, 17, REPORTS RAPE BY MAN CARRYING KNIFE

A 17-year-old girl has told police she was raped at knifepoint Sunday by a man who broke into her Old Southwest apartment building.

Police said the girl told them the electricity went off in her apartment about 12:45 p.m. They said she went to the basement to check out the problem. As she neared the bottom of the steps, a man jumped out of the dark, placed a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Then he forced her upstairs and into her apartment, where he raped her, she said.

Afterward, the man ordered the girl to leave the apartment. She got into her car and drove to the hospital, police said.

Investigators think the man was able to get into the apartment building by breaking a basement window.

To protect the identity of the victim, police said they would not reveal the location of the apartment building. No arrest has been made.

Also Sunday, a 15-year-old from Northwest Roanoke was arrested and accused of hitting a man in the head with an 18-inch machete in retaliation for an earlier argument, police said.

Police would not release the name of the attacker because he is a juvenile.

The victim, John Stafford Gates, 47, was struck in the back of the head twice in the 1000 block of Hanover Avenue Northwest, police said. He was treated at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

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