DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997             TAG: 9704160485

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Briefs 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   45 lines

COURTS & CRIME

Teen-age offender recaptured after fleeing work program

Officials searching for a 17-year-old offender who had escaped from a work program in Back Bay Tuesday afternoon found the youth four hours later at his girlfriend's Chesapeake home.

The teen, who is now facing charges of escape and grand larceny, was found by the program's administrators in the Greenbrier section of the city around 6 p.m.

The Chesapeake youth escaped while performing community service at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in southern Virginia Beach at about 2 p.m.

The teen-ager duped a park ranger, taking the keys to a government-owned 1993 four-door white Jeep Cherokee. He fled in the Jeep after telling the ranger that its lights were on and he would turn them off if given the keys, said Roy Boyce, executive director and spokesman for the program.

The teen, who had been participating in the work program for a week, has no violent criminal history but is a repeat offender, Boyce said.

Boyce said the teen could also face a federal charge for stealing government property.

He is currently being held at the Regional Diagnostic Center in Richmond. The teen will not be returning to the community-based alternative offender program, Boyce said.

Norfolk

Police seek information on man's fatal shooting

A 38-year-old man died Tuesday morning after being shot Monday night near Grandy Park, police said.

Ronald G. Watson, whose address was unknown, was seen talking to two other men before he was shot just after 8 p.m. in the 3300 block of Kimball Terrace, police said. He was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he died at 1:50 a.m. Tuesday.

The two men were described as black males. They left the scene in a small, gray two-door vehicle driven by a third unidentified person.

Anyone with information on Watson, the other two men or the shooting is asked to call Crime Line at 664-4040. KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING JUVENILE OFFENDER ESCAPEE

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