ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9605010040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
The police officer whose bullets stopped a woman as she walked toward officers with a raised rifle Saturday night will do desk work while an investigation into the shooting is completed, police said.
Officer Alicia H. Smith shot Stella Arcaro, 42, in the upper and lower leg, according to Lt. Gary Brumfield. Arcaro was listed in stable condition Wednesday at Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital, a nursing supervisor said. Doctors performed surgery to repair a femur fracture on Saturday.
Arcaro called 911 Saturday night and said she was armed and planning to kill herself, according to police. Officers confirmed Arcaro had a rifle after watching through her apartment's back window in Old Farm Village I Apartments, off Roanoke Street near Interstate 81 in Christiansburg.
Police said that when Arcaro came outside with the rifle, she aimed it at officers and was shot by Smith, who graduated from the New River Criminal Justice Training Academy last summer.
Brumfield said Tuesday officers are trained to shoot for "center mass," or the torso. The fact that Arcaro was hit in the leg was unintentional, he said.
He said Arcaro was hit twice, but would not say how many shots were fired until the internal investigation is complete.
The state police Bureau of of Criminal Investigations also is investigating the shooting. Jerry Humphries, assistant special agent in charge at the Salem office, said no charges have been filed against Arcaro. The results of the investigation will be forwarded next week to Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith for a decision on charges, Humphries said.
Karen Rose, Arcaro's neighbor, said she heard at least six shots that night.
Rose was talking on the phone when she heard a loud knock on her door. By the time she answered the door, no one was there, she said. Thinking it was her neighbor who had knocked, Rose went to Arcaro's door.
Rose said she had no idea officers were then behind the apartment building watching Arcaro through a window.
Arcaro answered her door with tears rolling off her cheeks, Rose said, and without the .22-caliber rifle in her hand that police say she later pointed. After talking with her for a few minutes, Rose left and went to the next-door apartment building.
An officer found Rose at her neighbor's apartment and asked them to stay inside.
Soon after, Rose said, she heard the gunshots.
She returned to her apartment and looked out her back window to see Arcaro prone in the grass.
"She [Arcaro] said she didn't have many friends, but she never said she would commit suicide," Rose said.
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