DATE: Wednesday, August 20, 1997            TAG: 9708200434

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   34 lines

MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING WIFE, THEN SHOOTING SELF

A man apparently shot his wife to death, then critically wounded himself Tuesday morning in their Park Place home, police said.

Detectives were investigating the shootings as a murder and attempted suicide, police spokesman Larry Hill said. The husband, identified as Byron Chavis, 52, was in critical condition at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. His wife, Isabell Chavis, 49, died at the home.

Hill said the shootings occurred just before 6 a.m. in the 700 block of W. 31st St. near Gosnold Ave.

He said family members had received a call from the man about a dispute the couple was having, Hill said. The family members went to the home but were unable to get into a locked upstairs bedroom, where the couple was located.

The family members called police and paramedics, who broke down the bedroom door. Inside they found the woman dead and the man wounded. Hill said the shootings had occurred before the family members arrived.

Police are investigating what led to the dispute, Hill said.

``To the best of our knowledge, there is no history of domestic problems at that address between those two individuals, at least not reported to the police department,'' Hill said.

This was the second double shooting in Norfolk in less than a day.

Stanley Wilson, 30, of Chesapeake was killed and Regina Daggs of Norfolk was wounded in a burst of gunfire in the Huntersville area Monday afternoon.

Daggs, 24, was treated and released from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Arrested in that case was 30-year-old Angela Perez. She was charged with murder, malicious wounding and using a firearm. KEYWORDS: SHOOTING MURDER ARREST DOMESTIC DISPUTE

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