ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996                  TAG: 9607290074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Lede 

HURT PARK RESIDENT KILLED MICHAEL DENT, 20, WAS STABBED TO DEATH

Michael Dent was a lifer at the Hurt Park Housing Development. He had spent 19 of his 20 years living there with his parents.

Dent cut a stylish figure in the project off Salem Avenue Southwest.

The rap music of Helter Skelter often thumped from his metallic-gold 280ZX. But he was more approachable than intimidating. He invited children to sit in the passenger seat and fiddle with his customized stereo. He'd give them a dollar to go buy some soda.

Last week, he strode through the complex with his lanky gait, giving a high-five to one of the older women. His presence was a constant throughout the neighborhood and along the short stretch of town houses in the 100 block of 17th Street.

But Sunday afternoon, his hangout was the scene of a showdown. A verbal battle between Dent and a newcomer in the apartment complex culminated, according to police and a witness, with Dent being stabbed in the chest. He died a short time later at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

A 17-year-old, who moved from Detroit to live with a relative at Hurt Park, has been charged with the slaying. Police would not release his name because he is a juvenile. According to a new state law, his name will become public once he makes his first court appearance.

As police responded to the scene about 3:15 p.m. Sunday, they heard a series of shots. They later found two bullet holes in a nearby apartment, and Irvin Williams, 20, holding a chrome revolver. Williams, Dent's lifelong friend, tried to run but stopped when an officer drew his weapon. He was charged with shooting into an occupied dwelling, apparently firing his gun as a result of his friend's stabbing, police said.

Detectives arrested the 17-year-old after he approached them bleeding from his forearm and asked if officers had caught the shooter. Police said the teen-ager told them he was cut during a fight. He was treated at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and placed at Coyner Springs Juvenile Detention Center late Sunday.

The violence is not a norm for Hurt Park, where the sounds of children running in play can be heard throughout the day. It is more a sign of the times, say residents, when teen-agers and young people choose to end disagreements with weapons rather than words.

Until Sunday, there had been no shootings at Hurt Park this year, according to statistics from the Roanoke Police Department. The last shooting in the housing complex happened in July 1995, when a 32-year-old man was injured by a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Many residents talk about how much safer they now feel in the neighborhood. But Dent's killing and the subsequent shooting cast a hush over the complex Sunday afternoon.

"It's just that silence," Gary Hancock said shortly afterward. He has watched Dent grow up. He tried to counsel him to stay straight.

Hancock called 911 after he saw a commotion atop the hill on 17th Street. Then he saw Williams covered in blood.

Hancock ran from his apartment and found Dent lying on the ground.

"I got a towel out of my truck," Hancock, 32, said. "He was just bleeding too fast. He was just groaning. I just told him to hang on."

The two had last talked Saturday night, hanging out by Hancock's pickup truck, soaking in the unusually cool July air. Dent said he had his life together, Hancock said, and was moving in the right direction.

Hurt Park was Dent's world. A recent trip to New York City was fun, he told The Roanoke Times two weeks ago during an interview with Hurt Park residents.

"But New Yorkers are too fast," he said.

He held small dreams for his future, like a job at Yokohama Tire Corp. with his cousin. Leaning against his car, flashing a smile that showed his new gold-plated dental work, he said, "I'm still a young man with promise."

Dent is the seventh homicide in Roanoke this year.

LENGTH: Medium:   81 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ERIC BRADY/Staff. Roanoke City EMS personnel attend 
          stabbing victim Michael Dent at Hurt Park in Roanoke Sunday. One 
          resident points to the hill Dent ran down before falling. 2. 
          Detective Michael Meador escorts the suspect in the stabbing death 
          to an ambulance at Hurt Park. The 17-year-old was treated for a cut 
          at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. color.
KEYWORDS: ROMUR