DRIVER COMMITS SUICIDE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992                   TAG: 9202110257
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
DRIVER COMMITS SUICIDE
A Salem man with a history of drunken-driving convictions shot himself in the head and died Monday after being stopped by police for a second time in an hour.
David E. Dickson, 27, of the 1600 block of Narcissus Street, was pronounced dead at Roanoke Memorial Hospital around 5:20 a.m.
The shot from the pistol shattered a window in the 1980 pickup truck he was driving, spraying glass on Salem police Officer R.D. Brookshier as he approached the truck around 2:40 a.m.
Dickson was awaiting a hearing in May on whether he should be declared a habitual traffic offender.
Court records show he had at least three convictions for driving under the influence. Salem Police Chief Harry Haskins said Dickson registered more than two times the legal limit for intoxication when tested at the hospital following the shooting.
Brookshier first spotted Dickson traveling south on Virginia 419. The officer followed the truck as it turned east on Apperson Drive and slowed to about 5 mph.
When the truck stopped, Brookshier walked up and the shot was fired.
About 40 minutes earlier, state Trooper J.A. Britton had stopped Dickson on Interstate 581 in Roanoke for speeding. Britton found that Dickson had a suspended driver's license.
Dickson told Britton he would walk to a nearby service station and call someone to give him a ride.
Britton returned a short time later to find the truck gone. He put out a bulletin for other area police to be on the lookout for Dickson.
Keywords:
FATALITY

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB