ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JON CAWLEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
A young Northwest Roanoke woman and her mother were shot to death Tuesday night in a Bennett Drive apartment, allegedly by the daughter's former boyfriend.
The apparent gunman, who looked to be in his early 20s, was discovered soon after the slayings in a crowd milling about the apartment house. After a long standoff in which he held his gun to his head, he was shot and wounded by police when he tried to escape.
The victims were Deborah Casey and her daughter, Sharon Casey. They were slain between 10 and 11 p.m. at Caru Apartments. Neighbors said Sharon Casey had two young children.
The identity of the gunman, referred to by police during the 11/2-hour standoff as "Mike," could not be confirmed early this morning. Maj. J.L. Viar said he was alive when paramedics took him to a local hospital but that his condition was not known.
A long, tense confrontation began when a woman ran toward the police and the crowd of 100 or more onlookers and yelled that she had spotted the man police were looking for behind a nearby building.
Moments later, a woman screamed, ``There he is,'' pointing to a man standing beside a police officer. The officer tried to wrestle him down. They struggled briefly, both men with guns drawn. The police officer fell, and the suspect slipped away. He had a clear shot at the officer during the struggle but did not fire. Instead he ran off, hands over his head, police officers chasing him with drawn guns.
Police cornered him in a rear courtyard of the apartment house and evacuated nearby apartment houses. The man held the gun to his head and was talking to himself. With more than a dozen police armed with handguns, automatic weapons and shotguns surrounding him, he called repeatedly for his mother.
"I want my mom! That's all I ask. I want my mom!" he yelled as people in the crowd shouted, "Shoot him!"
"Please, oh my God, I loved that girl!" he shouted.
"I shot Sharon, Mom, I shot her!" he yelled after his mother arrived.
"Please, no Mom, I can't put it down!" he shouted when she urged him to drop the gun. "I don't deserve to live! I killed them, Mom!
"I don't care! It's my time to go!"
He put the gun down twice and dared the police - who were standing 25 to 30 feet away - to come and get him. "I dare y'all to come out here!" he yelled.
Around 12:25 a.m. he knelt as though in prayer, then stood with arms outstretched and walked toward the police, shouting, "Just shoot me!"
Police advanced toward him, but the man ran by them and through an apartment breezeway and across the parking lot. As the crowd scattered, police pursued him across another courtyard and into nearby woods, where they caught him. A shot rang out at 12:30 a.m. The circumstances of the shooting were not clear this morning.
An ambulance drove out to the woods and picked him up.
Deborah Casey was an employee of The Roanoke Times. She worked as an inserter in the mail room.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. After being spottedby CNBby a bystander, the murder suspect (top left) wrestled with a police
officer, 2. then slipped away (far left.) 3. Surrounded by three
policemen in a ciurtyard, he refused to drop his weapon, and police
retreated (center). 4. During the standoff, he stood with his gun to
his head at times (left). color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY ROMUR