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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994                   TAG: 9403010229
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

`IT WAS HIS FAVORITE PLACE TO STOP'

The Pennsylvania trucker stopped at the deli beside Interstate 81 whenever his route brought him through Southwest Virginia.

``It was his favorite place to stop and get a sandwich; he went there quite often,'' said Cindy Ruhl, his sister-in-law. ``He said the food there was so good.''

On Monday, Ruhl's family huddled at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, clinging to hope that his attempted heroics at the truck stop Saturday night won't cost him his life.

Ruhl, 29, remained in very critical condition in the hospital's neurotrauma intensive care unit, suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck. Doctors think he is paralyzed.

When he walked into the truck stop around 9 p.m. Saturday, Ruhl didn't realize the store's clerk had been shot in the chest by Elbert L. Goodwin. He called 911, thinking only that Sandra K. Brown was passed out on the floor.

Only after the call did he see blood and try to keep Goodwin from leaving.

``You're not going anywhere,'' Ruhl told Goodwin. That's when Goodwin shot him.

At 5 feet 6 inches and about 145 pounds, Timothy Ruhl - with his blond hair and blue eyes - is hardly an imposing figure.

Still, Cindy Ruhl said she isn't surprised that her brother-in-law stood up to the gunman. ``Timothy was no giant, but he wouldn't back down,'' she said in a telephone interview from her Pennsylvania home.

Keywords:
FATALITY