ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 9, 1996 TAG: 9607090087
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
When four carloads of young men rode into a Northeast Roanoke housing development to settle a score on an April afternoon, at least 16 shots were fired, three people were hit and five were charged with malicious wounding.
But only one person, an 18-year-old man, was convicted Monday. After hearing several hours of wildly conflicting testimony, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Joseph Bounds dismissed the remaining charges against a juvenile and three adults.
The judge dismissed malicious wounding charges against Teon Lee Parris, 20; Arcadius Washington, 20; Dwayne A. Gray, 21; and a 17-year-old, all of Roanoke.
The 18-year-old was allowed to remain free on bond until he is sentenced later for malicious wounding. He is not being named because he was 17 at the time of the shootings and was tried as a juvenile.
As the two opposing groups in the shootout exchanged heated words after the hearing, the teen-ager - who was shot in the buttocks during the incident - approached the investigating detective in a courthouse hallway.
"Then how did I get shot?'' he asked. "I shot myself in the a--?''
Roanoke police have said earlier they could not recall another incident in recent years when so many people went after each other with guns the way they did at the Bluestone public housing development April 23.
But with different witnesses telling different stories - some people testified that men who were never charged fired shots; others said they never saw guns in the hands of men who were charged - a clear picture of what happened never emerged.
"Team A says team B all had guns, and team B says team A all had guns. ... Our evidence isn't going to rise any higher than that," Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Bowers told the judge.
Although there was no clear evidence of a motive, Kenya Reynolds testified that about a dozen young men showed up at her apartment, apparently to settle an earlier argument involving her boyfriend.
What started as a fistfight quickly escalated into a gunfight, Reynolds testified.
"They were just shooting," she said. "I don't know if they even knew what they were shooting at."
One of the youths was "smiling and laughing the whole time he was popping the gun," she said.
When the shooting subsided, the 18-year-old discovered he had been shot in the buttocks. Also wounded were William Campbell, 20, who was shot in the right thigh, and Benitiz Copeland, 16, who was shot in the leg.
When police arrived, the crowd had scattered. Three suspects were arrested near Breckinridge Middle School on Williamson Road, but not before an animal control officer was called to restrain a pit bull terrier that was with the young men.
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