ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
MEMO: shorter in metro
Lockdown, crackdown at prison
DILLWYN - Corrections officers are going cell to cell in Buckingham Correctional Center looking for contraband as a lockdown following the slashing of the maximum-security prison's warden continues.
``It will continue as long as we feel we need to do it,'' David Botkins, a Department of Corrections spokesman, said Monday. ``We're sending the message that the staff run the prison, not the inmates.''
Botkins did not know what, if any, contraband has been found during the lockdown.
Charges are pending against inmate Dennis Keith Webb, 32, who is accused of slashing warden Eddie L. Pearson. Authorities say Webb approached Pearson in the prison mess hall Thursday and slashed Pearson across the side of the neck with a homemade knife.
After the attack, inmates rushed two other prison officials but were turned back when a guard shot and wounded four inmates. Prisoners also set fire to the prison's library.
Botkins said there was substantial damage to a majority of the books in the library, most of it from smoke and soot. He reiterated that there was no evidence that the attacks were a coordinated effort.
``These are violent, predatory felons; that's why they're incarcerated,'' Botkins said. ``Just because they're locked up doesn't mean they're going to change their pattern of behavior.''
Any prosecution of inmates would be handled by the Buckingham County commonwealth's attorney, E.M. Wright. He said Monday he had not received any information from the department and declined to comment further.
- Associated Press
20 cars collide in fog; man dies
SUFFOLK - Fog caused a 20-vehicle pileup that killed one person, injured 10 and tied up rush-hour traffic on Military Highway for nearly three hours Monday morning, police said.
Police say the pileup started when a pickup driven by Melvin Jack Haskins, 80, of Norfolk ran into the back of a Suffolk city trash truck stopped in the southbound lanes about 8:15 a.m. While Haskins was checking for damage, he was hit by a second truck and died at the scene, police said.
Because of poor visibility and the tie-up, 17 more vehicles ran into the wrecks, police said.
Ten people were treated at the scene, eight of whom were taken to local hospitals. Conditions of those injured were not immediately available.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB