DATE: Tuesday, September 2, 1997            TAG: 9709020077

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   40 lines

YOUTH DIES, FRIEND HURT WHEN BULLETS STRIKE CAR

A 17-year-old boy was killed and a teen-age companion injured when someone opened fire on the car they were in late Saturday, police said.

Le-Ardrae Mullen of the 300 block of E. Little Creek Road was pronounced dead at the scene.

The other person in the car was identified as Calvin Williams, 14, of the 8500 block of Chesapeake Boulevard. He was treated at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for his injuries and released.

Larry Hill, a police spokesman, said initial reports, received by police at 10:24 p.m., were that there had been a car accident in the 1100 block of Chapel St., near downtown.

When officers arrived, they found that a late model red Mazda, which had been heading north toward Princess Anne Road, had collided head-on with a parked car. But the people they found hurt in the car had been shot.

Police said it was Mullen who had been driving and that it appeared the accident happened after he had been shot.

``It wasn't a random type thing,'' Hill said Sunday, although the motive for the shootings was still being sought by investigators. It also was unclear if anyone else had been in the car prior to the shootings and the wreck.

Police are searching for a lone suspect, described as black, in his 30s, with a short, stocky build and balding. He may have been driving a red or maroon car, possibly a Saab.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call investigators at 664-7023 or Crime Line at 664-4040. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

JOHN C. BELL

Norfolk Police crime scene investigator R.J. Quick photographs the

vehicle in which a gunshot victim died. A passenger was taken to

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. The auto struck two parked cars on

Chapel Street. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT TRAFFIC SHOOTING MURDER

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