Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 10, 1993 TAG: 9308100016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It was just redneck s---," he said.
Rebecca Sheppard, 25, died Friday night after a pickup truck plowed into her on Marshall Avenue Southwest and nearly severed her leg.
Tim Sheppard said he had exchanged words with the truck driver just before his wife was critically injured shortly after 7:30 p.m.
Police will let Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell decide whether the charge against Harold Elmer Gould Jr., 36, of Hershberger Road, should be elevated to murder or manslaughter following Rebecca Sheppard's death.
"I didn't know him," said Sheppard, who said he can't remember the specifics of their argument.
Sheppard said he hit Gould before the latter climbed behind the wheel of a pickup truck.
"He was reaching down like he was going for something," said Sheppard, who had been partying with friends for about two hours in a yard on the 600 block of Marshall Avenue. "Everybody was yelling `gun.' "
Instead of firing a pistol, police said, the truck driver sped up Marshall Avenue and turned around. He came back toward the yard and veered off the street toward where several people, including Rebecca Sheppard, were standing.
Tim Sheppard said the truck clipped him before hitting his cousin, Eddie Ray Sheppard, breaking his arm. The truck then pinned Rebecca Sheppard into another car and nearly severed her leg.
Tim Sheppard said he thought his wife was up on a porch and out of danger.
"I went down and talked to Becky asking if she was all right," Tim Sheppard said. "She was gasping for air."
by CNB