THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070648
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Classes were to resume at Wythe Elementary School today, a day after police found the body of a gunman who fled into the school after a car chase. He killed himself after barricading himself in an empty classroom.
Police found his body early Thursday after using cameras and sound equipment to check the classroom into which the man fled after crashing his car near the school. No one else was hurt, and the school was evacuated.
Thursday's classes were canceled, although teachers were called in.
The gunman, identified as Franklin Stevenson, 40, had earlier threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend. It was her call to police in Newport News on Wednesday that sparked a midafternoon police chase into Hampton. The school was evacuated at 2:45 p.m. when Stevenson ran inside, carrying a handgun, after his car struck a garage.
Hampton police spokesman Donnie Moore said officers secured the area and then, about 5 p.m., members of the SWAT team moved inside. As they neared the room where Stevenson was hiding, two shots were heard.
Not knowing whether he had shot at them or not, officers took up positions outside the room. Three negotiators tried to make contact with the Stevenson.
Initially, Moore said, negotiators used the school's intercom system in an attempt to make contact. Police could speak into the room and hear a response. There was none.
After dark, a camera was put up outside the building, its lens peering in through the second-floor classroom's windows. The camera was then taken into the school and pushed through the classroom door.
When police reviewed the videotape, they spotted Stevenson's body. By then, it was after midnight.
SWAT team members entered the classroom just before 1 a.m. Thursday and found Stevenson dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. ``He was lying on his right side,'' Moore said. ``The gun was still in his hand.''
KEYWORDS: SUICIDE SHOOTING HIGH-SPEED CHASES by CNB