THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190403
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Police in Suffolk and two North Carolina counties Tuesday were seeking a hatchet-wielding man who attacked three people and hijacked several vehicles in North Carolina.
The man, who had not been identified by police late Tuesday, was suspected of striking a convenience store clerk on the head with a hatchet, stabbing a nurse and crushing the shoulder of a 64-year-old woman in North Carolina. He took the cars of the latter two and forged the elderly woman's credit card.
Suffolk police were trying to determine whether the man was connected to a hit-and-run accident and to the death of a woman whose body was found Monday in Lake Cohoon.
They sought a missing Hampton man, Christopher Dozier, of the 1200 block of Micott Drive, whose car was in the accident Sunday in Suffolk. The description of the 24-year-old man, also known by the Muslim name Ra Ashann, so closely matched that of the suspect in the North Carolina incidents that Suffolk police delivered his picture so North Carolina police could show it to victims and witnesses.
The suspect in the North Carolina assaults was last seen about noon Monday in Fayetteville, where he used the stolen credit card in a store, said Detective Ned Summerlin of the Johnston County Sheriff's Department.
Dozier is black, 6-foot-4, weighs 200 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes. Victims of the North Carolina incidents gave a similar description, adding that their assailant had cuts and scratches on his face and arms.
Police, victims and witnesses offered this account:
About 1:10 a.m. Sunday, a Suffolk man saw a speeding car, without lights, run off Lake Meade Drive and hit an embankment. Police found no one in the car, which had temporary license tags registered to Dozier. Blood was found inside.
About 10:30 a.m. Sunday, a man living near the accident site reported his small boat missing from atop his pier.Police found it partially filled with water and with blood in it.
About 11:30 p.m. Sunday, residents of the 3100 block of Kings Fork Road heard a crash. Police now believe the noise resulted when a stolen pickup smashed through a gate at a trailer. Police said someone earlier had broken into the trailer, whose owner was out of town.
About 4 a.m. Monday, a man was seen in Greenville, trying to repair the pickup. Videotape showed that he went inside a store about 6:19 a.m., waited untilcustomers had left, then assaulted clerk Leon E. Parker, 21, with a hatchet.
Parker, who required more than 20 stitches, ran outside. His attacker followed but suddenly ran back inside, jumped over the counter and picked up a bottle of orange juice. He threw the juice on the windshield of a car he was trying to steal. He attacked two more people, then drove off in a 1987 Nissan Stanza.
About 6:20 a.m. Monday, the Nissan was at a stop sign in Greenville. ``He just rammed my car,'' nurse Nina Nobles said. ``Before I knew it, he had pulled me out on the ground.''
He had a knife and pulled her hair, she said. ``I began to fight him,'' she said, and he thrust a kitchen knife under her left breast. He kicked her and left in her car.
``He's a madman,'' she said.
About 9:40 a.m., between Selma and Micro in Johnston County, Arlene Hines saw a man with a gas can in the roadway.
When she approached, he pulled her out onto the road, crushing her shoulder bone and bruising her face. Hines underwent surgery Tuesday.
About 4:30 p.m. Monday, a woman's body was found in Lake Cohoon, near the intersection of Kings Fork Road and Lake Meade Drive in Suffolk. Results of an autopsy done Tuesday were not released, but police believe she had been in the water about two days.
The woman was 20 to 30 years old, 5-foot-8, about 138 pounds, and had red, dyed hair, a gold front tooth and a small scar from recent suturing on the center of her forehead, just above the nose.
Tuesday afternoon, Hampton police obtained a search warrant for Dozier's home, believing the woman might have been killed in Hampton. They did not disclose their findings.
Police asked help in locating the suspect.
``He's a lunatic running loose,'' said Summerlin, of the Johnston County Sheriff's Department. ``Knowing his potential, he's extremely dangerous.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Police are seeking Christopher Dozier, a Hampton man also known as
Ra Ashann.
KEYWORDS: ASSAULT INJURIES by CNB