ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997 TAG: 9704140064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
Officers cleared in shooting
VIRGINIA BEACH - Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Humphreys has found no criminal wrongdoing by police officers who fatally shot an unarmed motorist who had refused to stop after ramming a military police vehicle on the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
The motorist, Bruce Quagliato, 28, finally was blocked near the Norfolk-Virginia Beach Expressway on March 25, but he refused to get out of his car and was seen reaching for something. Officers fired more than 60 shots.
``He acted like he had'' a weapon, Humphreys said.
The four to eight officers involved in the shooting have not been identified.
Quagliato may have been depressed after being evicted from his home and nearly losing his hotel job, Humphreys said.
``He clearly was despondent,'' the prosecutor said. ``He hand-wrote out a will. ... He had told one of his roommates that he wanted to be buried in his car.''
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bishop Lee withdraws from election to top post
RICHMOND - Bishop Peter James Lee of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia has withdrawn from consideration for election to the denomination's top post.
``I am now clear that I am not called,'' said Lee, whose diocese is the second largest in the 2.5 million-member denomination. He had been considered among the top candidates.
A denominational nominating committee is expected to announce a slate of nominees next Tuesday. The presiding bishop will be elected by the Episcopal House of Bishops, which meets in Philadelphia July 21.
The new bishop will succeed the Most Rev. Edmond Browning, whose term expires this year.
- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Speed limit to be cut on dangerous highway
MANASSAS - State officials will reduce the speed limit next week from 55 mph to 45 mph along a two-lane stretch of Virginia 28 where eight people have died in wrecks in the past six weeks.
The narrow road across Prince William and Fauquier counties will be widened to four lanes as soon as possible, officials said Thursday.
``The only way we are going to solve this problem is to split that opposing traffic,'' said Don Askew, the state Department of Transportation's district administrator for the area. ``We are going to fast-track the widening of this road.''
The reduced speed limit covers 29 miles from Manassas to Remington.
Since 1992, 17 people have been killed in accidents along the rural highway. The latest occurred Wednesday when three people died in a head-on collision. Another head-on crash March 19 claimed three lives.
Until the road is widened, officials plan to install rumble strips along the road's center line and raise pavement markers along its shoulders.
- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Man shoots girlfriend, kills her sister, himself
WILLIAMSBURG - A man wounded his former girlfriend, fatally shot her sister, then killed himself with a gunshot to the head, police said.
Roderick O. Taylor, 29, and the 27-year-old sister of Taylor's ex-girlfriend died Thursday at the sister's apartment. The 21-year-old former girlfriend, who was shot in the side, was in good condition at Williamsburg Community Hospital.
Taylor's former girlfriend had accused him Sunday of forcing her to have sex, according to a police report. He was charged Monday with rape and released on $10,000 bail.
Police believe an argument between Taylor and his former girlfriend over the rape charge triggered the shootings.
- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Briefly ...
An 88-year-old Stafford County man charged with fatally shooting a nephew who tried to deliver him a Thanksgiving meal has been found unfit to stand trial. Joe Williams has been committed indefinitely to the Piedmont Geriatric Hospital in Nottoway County, which serves mentally ill patients older than 65, prosecutor Jim Peterson said. Family members said Williams accused 52-year-old James Lee Washington of stealing his Social Security checks and trying to poison him. Washington was shot in the back.
A 62-year-old woman died in a Sussex County house fire, while several other adults and children escaped unharmed, authorities said. Several people tried to rescue Nannie Bell Hill, who was staying upstairs when the fire broke out about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, but fire and smoke blocked their path, said Sheriff E. Stuart Kitchen Jr. Authorities said burns on the bedroom floor indicate that an extension cord or heating device may have started the fire.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB