ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
POLICE SAID the man wanted on burglary and wounding charges doesn't pose a threat to the public.
Police were searching Monday night for a Bedford County man who was accused of threatening to blow up his ex-girlfriend's house.
Chester Lee Hickman, 31, of Moneta was being sought on charges of burglary with the intent to commit a felony while armed, and attempted malicious wounding.
Hickman probably was still in Bedford County but doesn't pose a threat to the public, said Lt. John McCane of the Bedford County Sheriff's Office.
Describing the incident as a domestic situation, McCane said witnesses told officers that a man went by his ex-girlfriend's house on Stone Mountain Road in Moneta about 11:20 p.m. Sunday and demanded to be let in.
When the woman wouldn't let him in, he allegedly pushed a heavy planter in front of the door, preventing anyone from coming out, and then pulled a gas grill to the window and turned it on, threatening to blow up the house, McCane said.
Then, the woman told police, the man kicked out a window air conditioner and forced his way into the house, telling her he had a gun. The woman escaped, and no one was hurt, McCane said.
The county's tactical team later determined the house to be empty.
On the other side of the county, about the same time, other sheriff's deputies responded to an unrelated house fire that may have been arson.
A trailer in Whispering Pines Trailer Park on U.S. 460 east of Bedford was destroyed by a fire that started in the bedroom shortly before 11:40 p.m.
No one was hurt in the fire, and police were investigating its cause. McCane would not give the name of the home's owner.
LENGTH: Short : 41 linesby CNB