Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994 TAG: 9403010133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roger Lee Banks, 34, was arraigned Monday in Roanoke General District Court after being arrested over the weekend on rape and abduction charges.
Police said a second man is a suspect but has not been arrested.
The woman said she was approached by two men about 2 p.m. Thursday as she left a business on the 500 block of Campbell Avenue Southwest.
The men said they had a gun and forced her to walk to a nearby alley, the woman said, where one man held her as the other raped her. She was treated at Community Hospital of the Roanoke Valley.
In other police reports Monday:
A Cloverdale man told police he was robbed at gunpoint about 2 a.m. Saturday while stopped at a traffic light at Liberty and Plantation roads.
Lewis Andrew Merchant, 32, said the assailant tapped a handgun on the window of Merchant's pickup truck, ordered him to get out and struck him in the head with the gun.
After taking $80 from Merchant's pants pocket, the assailant got into Merchant's truck and chased him a short distance, police said. There have been no arrests.
A man who brandished a small-caliber handgun robbed the Melrose Avenue Pizza Hut late Sunday night.
The restaurant's manager told police she was closing the business about 11:15 p.m. when the robber came to the door, pulled a gun and told her no one would be hurt if she gave him money.
He fled after she gave him an undisclosed amount from the safe.
A woman was cut with a knife and robbed after being picked up by a man in an area known for prostitution.
Police said the 27-year-old woman was standing at Salem Avenue and Seventh Street Southwest about 3 a.m. Saturday when a man paid her $40 to get in his car. He drove her to an alley in Northwest Roanoke, where she was robbed of about $150 and cut several times on her left arm. She was treated at Community Hospital.
An ADT Security Systems van apparently was set on fire about 4 a.m. Saturday outside the Mountain Avenue home of a company employee. Two men were seen running from the fire, which gutted the interior of the van's cab.
by CNB