THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409130364
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
A secretary working at a computer terminal in a real estate office was struck in the neck by a bullet Monday afternoon when at least two gunshots were fired at a building on Newtown Road.
Cynthia Bonney, 33, a secretarial trainee who has been working at the William E. Wood office for about two weeks, was treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and released.
Bonney was wearing a high-necked dress that helped keep the bullet from penetrating deeply into her neck, doctors at the hospital said. When the dress material was pulled out of the neck wound, they said, the bullet popped out.
The 9 mm bullet that hit Bonney entered the building, in the 800 block of Newtown Road, through a window that looks out on Rock Creek Lane, a side road that dead-ends near Newtown. Another gunshot, which police believe was fired first, hit the lower left side of the same window.
Ruth A. Mather, another secretary at the William E. Wood agency, said Bonney was entering data into her computer about 4 p.m. when employees in the office heard a sound that authorities later said was the first bullet being fired. At the time, no one was concerned because no one identified the sound as a gunshot, Mather said.
About two minutes later, a second bullet crashed through the window and struck Bonney.
``The first time was like a small pop,'' she said. ``About two minutes later we heard a large bang and a second bullet came right through the window and hit (Bonney) in the neck.''
Bonney cried out as she was knocked from her chair onto her hands and knees on the floor, Mather said. Others in the office came to her aid and called 911.
Mather said the shooting appeared to be random. A Venetian blind was down at the time of the shooting and would have prevented anyone from seeing who was in the office. Mather said about eight of the 10 people assigned to the property management section were in the office when Bonney was shot.
Mather said there were potential witnesses. A man wearing earphones was mowing grass in an adjacent median strip, and there are several single-family homes on the other side of Rock Creek Lane.
Lou Thurston, spokesman for the Virginia Beach Police Department, said police have no suspects. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Solvers at 427-0000. ILLUSTRATION: Staff Map
KEYWORDS: SHOOTING INJURIES by CNB