ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 26, 1996 TAG: 9612260069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
A police SWAT team stormed a Manassas town house Wednesday looking for gunman who killed one man and wounded another, and was thought to be holding hostages, but found the house empty, police said.
Manassas police spokesman Marc Woolverton said police were searching the Georgetown South subdivision for the gunman.
Following the shooting around 2:15 p.m., the gunman ran into the town house, Woolverton said. Police were told that five or six people were in the residence, and officers tried to make contact with those inside by telephone, then by bullhorn.
After failing to make contact, Woolverton said police broke down the front door about 6 p.m. and found the house empty. He said police think the gunman may have fled earlier out the back door.
According to police, three men were fighting in the street in front of the town house when one of them, described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, pulled a gun and shot one man in the chest and the other in the right forearm. A 30-year-old man shot in the chest died at the scene, Woolverton told the Potomac News. The 24-year-old man wounded in the forearm was taken to the Prince William Hospital. A hospital official, who declined to identify herself, refused to release the man's condition.
Terry Carter, who lives across the street from the town house, said he heard three shots and then saw one man running down the street holding his arm.
``There's just no movement'' in the house, Carter said before police rushed the house. ``The shades are all pulled. I can see the Christmas tree lights through an opening in their shade.''
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB