THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 1994 TAG: 9410060510
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN E. QUINONES MILLER AND STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Students at an elementary school were safely evacuated Wednesday after a gunman who had led police on a high-speed chase ran into the building..
A police standoff with the man, identified as Franklin Stephenson, continued late Wednesday night.
The gunman apparently upset over a breakup with his girlfriend, fired two shots at police when they initially tried to track him down in Wythe Elementary School, but he missed. Police then surrounded the school and began negotiations that continued into the night. The gunman remained holed up in the school at 10:30 p.m.
An undetermined number of students, teachers and employees were in the school when the gunman crashed the car he was driving nearby and ran into the three-story building about 2:40 p.m.
Although all students in kindergarten through third grade had left just minutes earlier, grades four and five were still in session.
``A teacher looking out of her classroom window saw a man with a gun enter the school and immediately notified the secretary in the main office,'' said Hampton schools Superintendent Billy Cannaday.
Meanwhile, police officers were hot on the gunman's heels.
Mae Kirk, a maintenance worker, had just finished cleaning a first-floor classroom and had walked into the hallway. ``I saw a policeman standing there with a gun and he yelled, `Get out of here!' And I flew out of there.''
In the office, the secretary followed an established emergency plan, Cannaday said. She set off an alarm and announced over a public address system: ``All teachers should take their children and immediately leave the building.''
The building was cleared within minutes. Most students thought they were participating in a fire drill, and it was unclear Wednesday night whether any students saw the gunman.
After the school was cleared, police dogs searched for the gunman. It was during that search that the two shots were fired.
Police spokesman Donnie Moore said the gunman retreated to a second-floor classroom and was isolated there with no escape route.
It was unclear what discussions were going on between police and the gunman or whether any relatives or friends had joined in efforts to get the man to surrender. Police set up a command post in a nearby fire station while dozens of officers surrounded the school. The woman who Stephenson had allegedly threatened was at the command post.
It was her call for help about 2:30 p.m. that set off the police chase, said Bill Roth, a Newport News police spokesman. The woman, whose name was not released, was working at a Handi-Mart convenience store in the 1700 block of Madison Ave.
The store owner, Luke Smith, said the 28-year-old woman told him that her ex-boyfriend had been harassing her for more than three weeks since she had said she was leaving him.
Smith said Stephenson had ``come into the store a number of times, arguing with her. One time she was telling him she didn't want him anymore and he got really upset and I had to ask him to leave.''
When Stephenson came in Wednesday afternoon, the woman called 911, apparently dialing just moments before he tried to stop her. She told police he was threatening her.
``Our dispatch officer heard a man in the background saying, `I'll kill you,' '' Roth said.
When the first officers arrived, they saw a man identified as Stephenson getting into a white Mitsubishi Mirage. Someone nearby yelled, ``That's him!''
The car sped off, and two police cars gave chase.
They first went south two blocks to 16th Street, then turned east. The car sped across the city line into Hampton where 16th Street becomes Chesapeake Avenue, and Hampton police joined the pursuit.
The Mitsubishi turned north for four blocks on LaSalle Avenue and then south on Kecoughtan Road, heading toward Newport News again.
Nita Mitchell, who owns a restaurant on Kecoughtan near the school, said she heard sirens and looked out a window in time to see about 10 police cars chasing a white car.
``The man was driving so fast,'' she said. ``I knew there was a wicked curve coming up, and I said, `Oh, my God. He's not going to make it. . . . He was only on two wheels as he was making the turn.''
A second later she heard the crash. The chase had ended at a double turn where Kecoughtan Road curves around Wythe Elementary School at Catalpa Avenue.
Karen Norman, who works at a doctors' office nearby, said she saw the car hit a garage. Initially, she ran toward the wreck, but she quickly retreated when she saw a man with a gun get out of the car. ``He wasn't pointing it at anybody or anything,'' Norman said. ``But he had it, so I ran.''
The man ran to the school, where he tried at least two doors before finding one that was unlocked, police said.
Police quickly sealed off the area, . As parents arrived to pick up children, officers fanned out.
Officials said Wednesday night that school was expected open at least two hours late this morning. ILLUSTRATION: STAFF MAP
by CNB