Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994 TAG: 9402270112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK, KATHY LOAN and TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The shootings happened about 9:30 p.m. at the Lancer Truck Stop off Interstate 81 at Ironto, according to Sheriff Ken Phipps of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
Details were sketchy, but authorities said they believed a domestic dispute led E.L. Goodwin, a 55-year-old Roanoke County man, to open fire.
Goodwin was listed in critical condition early today at Roanoke Memorial Hospital after shooting himself in the head a short time later, authorities said.
Sandra K. Brown, a clerk at the truck stop, was killed in the attack. Police said Brown, 37, of Radford, was shot at least twice.
A Pennsylvania truck driver, Timothy Lynn Ruhl, was shot in the neck after he tried to stop Goodwin seconds after the first shooting, Phipps said.
Ruhl, who called 911 after witnessing the shooting, approached Goodwin as he tried to leave the store and told him: "You're not going anywhere," Phipps said.
At that point, Ruhl was shot in the neck. The 29-year-old truck driver from Mount Joy, Pa., was listed in very serious condition at Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Details on the relationship between Goodwin and Brown were not known, but Phipps said the shooting apparently stemmed from a domestic situation.
Goodwin reportedly was depressed about his hours being reduced at work and apparently had been drinking, Phipps said.
Family members said Goodwin was a bulldozer operator with Russell Short, Inc., an excavating company in Roanoke.
Police stayed inside the truck-stop building, locking and unlocking the door as they came and went.
After the shooting, Goodwin jumped in his pickup truck and fled east on U.S. 460.
State Trooper Tim Steele said he followed Goodwin's pickup truck about four miles up Poor Mountain Road in Roanoke County. Goodwin lived on Poor Mountain, relatives said.
The truck swerved into a ditch and lost a tire, Steele said. It then veered back onto the road and went a short distance before stopping again.
At that point, Steele said, the driver shot himself in the head. He was found slumped against the passenger-side door.
A few miles away, blue lights blazed at the truck stop as cars from the state police and Montgomery County Sheriff's Department blocked the entrance. A small group gathered in the freezing night.
Yellow police lines cordoned off the Citgo gas pumps on one side of the convenience store, and the entry on the other. A man pulled up in a blue pickup truck and said his mother worked inside the store. He talked briefly with a police officer, then left.
Staff writer Allison Blake contributed information to this story.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB