THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200385
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Hampton and Suffolk detectives traveled to Florida on Wednesday and questioned a suspect in a multi-state crime spree, which included the slaying of a woman whose body was found in Suffolk and carjackings in North Carolina and Florida.
Police said Christopher Dozier, 23, was captured about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Nassau County, Fla., after he threw six firebombs at pursuing officers during a chase that topped 100 mph - sometimes on the wrong side of an interstate highway.
Dozier, who prefers his Muslim name, Ashaun Ra, is suspected in the slaying of a woman known only as ``Charlotte.'' Her body was found in Lake Cohoon in Suffolk on Monday.
Dozier also is wanted in North Carolina in connection with a series of assaults and carjackings:
In Greenville, police believe he hit a convenience store clerk in the head with a hatchet, stabbed a nurse with a kitchen knife and stole two cars.
Johnston County police believe he crushed the shoulder of a Selma woman when he yanked her out of her Ford Escort station wagon, slamming her to the pavement, and drove away in her vehicle.
The suspect in the attacks was last seen in Fayetteville, N.C., around noon Monday.
Police in Folkston, Ga., picked up his trail about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday when he allegedly stole gas while still driving the Escort. They alerted Florida police, who spotted him just after he crossed the state line on U.S. Route 1. They pursued him for about 25 miles, heading south into Callahan, then east to I-95.
Police said Dozier, while heading north on the interstate with five police cars in pursuit, lit small gasoline-filled bottles and threw them out the window. They exploded in flames on the pavement.
Dozier turned off on a U.S. Route 17 exit, made a U-turn, and drove up the ramp the wrong way, police said. Now heading south in the northbound lanes, he tried to hit an oncoming deputy's car.
At the Florida welcome center, he looped back southbound, then later crossed the median strip, again heading south against northbound traffic. At speeds of more than 100 mph, he forced cars and trucks off the highway, said Nassau County Sheriff Ray Geiger.
``There were cars and trucks veering off the road everywhere,'' Geiger said.
The chase ended after a tire blew on the car Dozier was driving. The car swerved, hit another car and veered across both southbound lanes, finally crashing in a ditch.
A woman driving the car that Dozier's vehicle struck received minor injuries.
Police chased Dozier about 40 yards into the woods, where he was caught. He had a screwdriver in his left sock and a curved knife in his right sock, police said.
Dozier was held in a Jacksonville hospital Wednesday. He was charged with eight counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer and one count of aggravated assault, among other violations.
Hampton police, who believe ``Charlotte'' was killed in their city, plan to obtain a warrant for Dozier's arrest. They eventually hope to return him to Virginia for trial, said Donnie Moore, Hampton police spokesman.
Court documents show police searched Dozier's Hampton home in the 1200 block of Micott Drive and found ``what appeared to be evidence of a struggle,'' including a broken piece of furniture, possible blood stains and a woman's clothing in the kitchen and den of the home.
Dozier was released from prison last December after serving five years of a seven-year sentence for mayhem/maiming, attempted robbery and use of a firearm, stemming from a conviction in Hampton when he was 18, corrections officials said.
He was discharged from six months parole in June and recently had been working at a Newport News restaurant.
Suffolk police found Dozier's car wrecked early Sunday morning near the site where the woman's body was found. A pickup truck stolen from a nearby residence was later abandoned at the Greenville convenience store.
Police know little about the homicide victim but believe she may have recently been in Newport News near 34th and 35th streets and Jefferson Avenue.
Dr. Faruk B. Presswalla, deputy chief regional medical examiner, said the woman died of asphyxia before entering the lake.
She was described as black, between 16 and 25, 5 feet 9 inches tall, about 138 pounds with short, reddish hair, possibly dyed. She had a half-inch vertical scar in the center of her forehead above the nose and a gold upper left front tooth.
Anyone with information about the woman's identity or the homicide is asked to call Hampton police at 727-6111. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Police say Christopher B. Dozier is a one-man crime spree.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SUSPECT UNIDENTIFIED BODY CARJACKING ASSAULT by CNB