THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 25, 1994 TAG: 9408250598
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER AND KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
A 21-year-old Norfolk State University student escaped from an armed abductor early Wednesday by driving her car head-on into a newspaper delivery van.
The abductor in the passenger seat smashed his head into the windshield. Apparently dazed, he staggered from the wrecked car and eluded police.
The student was not seriously injured.
``She did what she had to do,'' Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill said.
Part-time delivery driver David W. Newman, 38, of Suffolk was in the passenger's seat of a van owned by The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star at Greenwich and Newtown roads when he saw a black Mercury Topaz bearing down on the truck.
The time was 2:26 a.m., about 20 minutes after the woman was abducted.
``We had just left the (printing) plant and were getting ready to make a right turn onto Newtown Road when I saw the car as it veered into our lane, and it just headed right into us,'' said Newman, a first-class petty officer stationed at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
``I remember thinking, `What in the world is this woman doing?' '' Newman said. ``And then there was the collision.''
Newman and another delivery driver, J. Carter, of Virginia Beach, watched as the abductor stumbled from the car and fell twice.
``When he fell the second time, the gun fell out of his hand and slid down the pavement a little,'' Carter said.
The man crawled after the gun and then stood up.
``I didn't know what he was going to do at that point,'' Carter said. ``I thought he was going to shoot the girl, then I thought he was going to shoot me, but he just took off running.''
He staggered behind a nearby 7-Eleven store, and ran along Greenwich Road, police said.
By then, the woman had jumped out of the car and was banging on the van's door.
She screamed, ``Help me. Let me in,'' Newman said.
About three hours later, the police SWAT team searched the crawl space of a house near the east end of Greenwich Road after a police dog picked up a scent that led to the residence. They did not find the man.
Police declined to identify the student because she was the victim of a sexual assault. The abductor fondled the woman as she drove.
The student was treated at a hospital and released.
The abduction began about 2 a.m. at Virginia Beach Boulevard and Park Avenue in Norfolk.
Hill said the woman was talking on a pay phone. The abductor was sitting nearby at a bus-stop shelter.
When the woman went to her car, the man pulled a pistol and forced her to drive him toward Virginia Beach.
Apparently the man ordered the student to drive off Interstate 264 at Newtown Road, where the woman crashed her car into the van.
Police are looking for a dark-skinned black man between 19 and 25. He was described as 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red baseball cap, tan shorts and red-and-black shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call 427-0000. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOHN C. BELL
Police remove a car that was commandeered by an armed abductor who
forced his victim to drive to Virginia Beach.
JOHN C. BELL
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC SEX CRIME KIDNAP ABDUCTION
by CNB