THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120366
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Debra Parker looked across her back fence Wednesday and saw a man and woman locked in furious hand-to-hand combat. The woman's head was pinned against the wall of a house. The man appeared to be punching her.
``She was fighting with everything she had,'' said Parker, who watched in horror from her back yard next door. ``He was like a madman.''
Then Parker saw the knife in the man's hand. He wasn't just hitting the woman; he was stabbing her.
``When I realized, I raced into the house with my granddaughter and called 911,'' Parker said, barely holding back tears. ``When I was on the phone I heard a gun go off.''
The first officers to arrive in the 400 block of Draper Drive at about 11:45 a.m. found a confusing scene of bleeding victims and stunned neighbors in the quiet neighborhood just west of Southern Shopping Center.
When they sorted things out, investigators gave this account:
Tamara Dunn, 21, had been abducted from her home in Dale City by her estranged husband, David Dunn, and was brought to Norfolk. She was trying to escape when he stabbed and shot her.
A neighbor who tried to help her was shot in the leg by David Dunn.
Dunn, 24, of Norfolk, then tried to kill himself.
Tamara Dunn was listed Wednesday afternoon in critical but stable condition at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
The drama began earlier Wednesday in Dale City, where Tamara Dunn was living with her brother and his family. Police were called when the brother reported his sister missing, Prince William County police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said.
Chinn said police found signs of forced entry in the basement, where Tamara Dunn was living with her 5-month-old son.
Larry Hill, Norfolk police spokesman, said the Dunns had been estranged for five months. He said David Dunn brought the woman and baby to his father's house on Draper Drive and locked them inside.
When Dunn's father came home and opened the door, Tamara Dunn bolted to a neighbor's house two doors away, Hill said. Her husband chased her and began to stab her.
The screams were loud and panic-filled, said neighbors, who thought someone was being attacked by a dog.
But Richard Yopp, who lives on Draper Drive, said he saw the man hitting the woman. He and other people in the block tried to tackle the man, but Dunn ran away and returned with a rifle.
A tree trimmer, who asked not to be identified, was down the street when he heard the woman scream.
``She was bleeding, sitting on the porch,'' the man said. ``We yelled to neighbors to call the police.''
He said he and co-workers tried to comfort the woman. But when they saw David Dunn heading toward them with the rifle, they ran for cover.
Raymond Kirckof, a neighbor, tried to wrestle the gun away from Dunn but was shot in the left leg, police said.
Then, they said, Dunn shot his estranged wife at point-blank range and fled back to his father's house.
Police would not give details of Tamara Dunn's wounds. But homicide investigators credit Kirckof, 40, and Dunn's father, who also intervened, with saving her life.
Yopp said Tamara Dunn was conscious but barely breathing when officers arrived.
They found her lying on the ground. Her son, who remained inside Dunn's father's home, was unharmed. Police would not disclose his whereabouts after the incident.
Police discovered that David Dunn tried to hang himself and then drank bleach inside the father's home. Hill said Dunn was in stable condition but would not disclose where he was being held.
Dunn was charged with abduction, two counts of malicious wounding and two counts of using a firearm during a felony.
Debra Parker, who moved to the neighborhood 3 1/2 years ago, said she could not imagine how this sudden explosion of violence would affect residents there.
``I've never seen anything like this in my own life,'' she said.
``I know a lot of people praying for her.'' ILLUSTRATION: B\W photo by PAUL AIKEN/
Norfolk crime scene investigator Bill McKenzie collects evidence on
Draper Drive on Wednesday.
Color staff map by John Earle
Area Shown: stabbing, shootings occur here
Abduction occurred here
KEYWORDS: ABDUCTION ASSAULT SHOOTING DOMESTIC DISPUTE by CNB