THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140676
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
A gunman invaded a home near Stumpy Lake on Tuesday afternoon, taking an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy hostage after demanding money from their mother.
The two children were freed by the suspect shortly after midnight, police said - first the boy, then the girl about 15 minutes later - after a standoff that lasted more than eight hours.
Police arrived after they were called by the children's mother, whom the man had ordered to leave the house and go to her bank.
Just after midnight, the boy emerged from the house and was escorted down the street to his mother. A short while later, about 12:20, the girl was freed.
The suspect, Roman Moises, 19, of the 2100 block of Brush Hill Lane in Virginia Beach, surrendered about 1 a.m. today. He was charged with three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, one count of attempted robbery, two counts of abduction with the intent to extort, one count of extortion, one count of burglary with the intent to rob while armed, one count of abduction for immoral purposes, and one count of rape. He is being held without bond in the city jail.
Because of the rape charge, the names of the victims are being withheld.
Throughout the evening, as many as 50 police cars filled the streets in the new subdivision across Indian River Road from Stumpy Lake. Police roped off two blocks.
As the standoff wore on, the children's mother, her ex-husband and her boyfriend waited a block away from the house, which is in the 4500 block of Hollingsworth Court.
The incident began shortly before 4 p.m. when a man came to the front door of the home.
Police and neighbors gave the following account:
The boy answered the door and told his mother that a man was outside. The mother, who was in the shower, told her son to tell the man to go away. A few moments later, the man entered the residence with a medium-caliber revolver and walked upstairs with the boy to the mother's room.
The man demanded money. The mother said she didn't have any in the house but had $500 in her checking account. He told her to go to the bank and withdraw it. She left the house and drove away. She stopped and called police.
After officers arrived, they called for the SWAT team, which surrounded the house and set up listening and observation posts in area homes and in the woods nearby.
Fire Department floodlights were turned on the house as darkness fell. Police negotiators stayed in sporadic contact with the man, but would not say what they talked about or whether he made demands.
From about 9:30 p.m. until midnight, police said, the man apparently took the telephone off the hook. By 8:30 p.m. police had learned his identity and had prepared a photo lineup - a collection of police mug shots - for the mother to view. Neighbors in the subdivision said the man had been knocking on doors earlier. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Right: The gunman walks out of the house as police approach.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY SEX CRIME RAPE
KIDNAPPING ARREST by CNB