ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996                TAG: 9606270078
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-7  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER

MAN HELD IN 2 ATTACKS IN S.W. ROANOKE

Police arrested a suspect Wednesday in two recent attacks against women in Southwest Roanoke.

Ronnie Lee Howard, 22, of First Street Southwest was charged with the June 14 abduction of a woman outside her Elm Avenue apartment, police said. In the attack, the woman was grabbed from behind and a knife held at her back. The woman screamed, and the man fled.

Howard also was charged with burglary and grand larceny in connection with a break-in the same day at another woman's Elm Avenue apartment.

The woman was entering her apartment building when a man approached her and put a knife to her neck. He ordered her to open her apartment door.

The woman screamed, and the man fled into her apartment, which police said he had already burglarized. He left through a window, police said.

Police continue to investigate similar offenses in Southwest Roanoke.

Howard was being held in the Roanoke City Jail without bond.

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