ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on February 28, 1996.
George A. English, arrested in connection with the shooting of two
people in Bedford County Sunday night, is charged with two counts of
malicious wounding. A story Tuesday reported that he faced attempted
murder charges.
Lt. John McCane said Tuesday that Mickey Crider was being held in the
Bedford County Jail pending a bond hearing. A story Tuesday said he had
been released.
George Arthur English wore a bullet-proof vest to his arraignment Monday afternoon as Bedford County Sheriff's deputies stood by with rifles.
English is charged with the attempted murder of two people in Moneta late Sunday, and threats have since been made against him, Sheriff Mike Brown said.
So goes this violent case that turned Bedford Memorial Hospital's emergency room into a battleground Sunday night when an unruly clan attacked two sheriff's deputies.
"We expect anything out of this group," Brown said. "This doesn't speak well for the community. And you can print that."
According to Brown, here's what happened Sunday:
At 8:30 p.m., a man and woman were shot with a 12-gauge shotgun in the parking lot of an abandoned school on Virginia 655 near Moneta.
David Foxx of Bedford County was shot over the right eye and in the right armpit, Brown said.
Reva Price of Bedford was shot in the right thigh.
Both were rushed to Bedford Memorial Hospital.
As the victims were being treated, about 30 of their friends and relatives gathered in the emergency room.
Brown said the crowd, which included several who were "boisterous and filthy-mouthed," was milling about the emergency room and blocking its entrance.
Sgts. Ricky Gardner and Rick Wiita of the Sheriff's Office walked up to the group to ask them to calm down and move away from the emergency room entrance.
Then Gardner was sucker-punched, Brown said, and Wiita was knocked to the ground and kicked in the face as he attempted to subdue one of the people who started the altercation.
Brown, who was outside the hospital when the fight broke out, rushed in and began pulling people off his sergeants.
He was assisted by several of his deputies, state troopers, Bedford police officers and hospital security personnel.
"We were trying to help the victims, and we ended up taking all the static," Brown said.
Later, some in the crowd followed hospital workers outside as they loaded Foxx onto a helicopter to be flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Cousins Mickey and Buford Crider face charges stemming from the fight.
Buford Crider of Altavista is charged with threatening Gardner's life, assault and battery, and resisting arrest.
He is being held in the Bedford County Jail on a $5,000 bond. Except for court appearances and consultations with his lawyer, he will be barred from Bedford County if he is bonded out of jail.
Mickey Crider of Moneta is charged with assault and battery and resisting arrest. He was released Monday pending his future appearance in court. He apparently was hit by a shotgun pellet Sunday, but he refused treatment, Wiita said.
A few minutes before the fracas at the hospital, English, of Franklin County - the one charged with attempted murder - was turning himself in to sheriff's deputies.
English, 31, called 911 from a relative's house at 9:30 p.m. and asked Franklin County deputies to meet him at a convenience store in Burnt Chimney, said Lt. Ewell Hunt.
Twelve minutes later, he was in custody.
He is being held in the Bedford County jail on $25,000 bond.
Brown said investigators have not pinpointed a motive for the shootings, but it is believed the trouble began over a drag race.
The two shooting victims are expected to recover from their injuries.
Reva Price was treated at Bedford Memorial Hospital and released a few hours after the shooting, and David Foxx was responding well to treatment at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Brown said.
Howard Ainsley, the director of Bedford Memorial Hospital, said the actions of the police and hospital personnel during the melee was "admirable."
"The situation is not unlike some of the things you see on that television show "E.R.," he said. "But our staff carried on treatment throughout all of it."
Staff writer Richard Foster contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB