THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140514
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
A gunman invaded a home near Stumpy Lake on Tuesday afternoon, taking an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy hostage and demanding money from their mother.
After the man ordered her to leave the house and go to her bank, she called police.
Just after midnight - eight hours into a standoff between the suspect and police - the boy emerged from the house and was escorted down the street by a police officer to his mother. Whether he escaped or was freed was unclear. One witness said she saw him running out of the garage area.
As many as 50 police cars filled the streets in the new subdivision across Indian River Road from Stumpy Lake. Police roped off two blocks of the neighborhood to keep onlookers at bay. Most of the homes appeared vacant or still under construction.
As the standoff wore on, the children's mother, her ex-husband and her boyfriend waited a block away from the house, which is in the 4500 block of Hollingsworth Court. The names of the family were not released.
The incident began shortly before 4 p.m. when a man came to the front door of the home.
Police and neighbors gave the following account:
The boy answered the door and told his mother that a man was outside. The woman, who was in the shower, told her son to tell the man to go away. A few moments later, the man entered the residence with a medium-caliber revolver and walked upstairs with the boy to the mother's room.
The man demanded money. The woman said she didn't have any in the house but had $500 in her checking account. He told her to go to the bank and withdraw it. The woman left the house and drove away. She stopped and called police.
After officers arrived, they called for the SWAT team, which surrounded the house and set up listening and observation posts in area homes and in the woods nearby.
Fire Department floodlights were turned on the house as darkness fell. Police negotiators stayed in sporadic contact with the man, but would not say what they talked about or whether he made demands.
From about 9:30 p.m. until midnight, police said, the man apparently took the telephone off the hook.
Police released little information about the suspect other than a brief description. However, by 8:30 p.m. police had learned his identity and had prepared a photo lineup - a collection of police mug shots - for the mother to view. Because police had a picture of the suspect, it is likely he has been previously charged with a felony.
Neighbors in the subdivision said the man had been knocking on doors earlier, asking for landscaping work or whether the parents were home. Neighbors said they had not seen him in the area before. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
SWAT team members surrounded the house, on Hollingsworth Court near
Stumpy Lake, and set up observation posts. Inside were the gunman
and his hostages: a girl, 11, and her brother, 13.
Map
STAFF
KEYWORDS: HOSTAGES VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT by CNB