DATE: Friday, June 6, 1997                  TAG: 9706060615

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON AND LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   96 lines

SHOOTING ENDS STANDOFF IN SUFFOLK

Afraid of the dark, Romie N. Williams Jr. refused to come outside even after his home had been cast into darkness Wednesday night.

Even tear gas and flash grenades didn't drive him out, after police negotiators failed to coach surrender by the armed man with a history of mental problems.

But as police dogs charged the front of the Prospect Road home at the end of an 18-hour standoff, Williams bolted out the back door to be confronted by another of his fears - men in uniforms.

State troopers ordered him to drop the loaded shotgun he was carrying. He refused, pointing the weapon at them.

They fired at him.

He was struck at least three times - twice in his upper body and once in a leg, according to police and neighbors.

Williams, 33, was in serious but stable condition late Thursday in the intensive care unit of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital after more than five hours in surgery.

Williams, described by neighbors as a quiet man, lived with his mother in a modest brick house in the 200 block of Prospect Road.

Recently, the neighbors had noticed odd routines and increased self-absorption.

On late spring days, he would sit on a neighbor's porch among friends without saying a word for hours.

Most mornings, he would walk up to the corner of U.S. Route 58, face west and click his stopwatch. With his back to the whizzing traffic, he'd walk along the thin shoulder.

After a precise five-mile loop, he would stop his watch and stand by the stop sign at the corner near his house for an hour to rest. Sometimes he waved to passing cars.

``You didn't know when he would snap,'' said longtime neighbor Ned Hicks. ``This weekend he did.''

The confrontation began on Saturday, when police officers tried to serve a court order to determine whether he should be remanded to a mental facility. They had picked him up before on at least one emergency custody order, police said, but this time Williams refused to cooperate.

He slammed the door, threatening to kill anyone who returned, police said.

Hicks said he and other neighbors telephoned Williams Sunday night and tried to coax him out of his house.

Williams answered that someone was trying to break into his house, Hicks said. Williams was scared of the men in uniforms.

Police watched the house until Wednesday morning, when two officers again tried to serve Williams the custody order while he was in his yard. They also had an arrest warrant for threatening bodily harm.

Williams brandished a 12-gauge shotgun at the officers, who retreated.

The officers called for backups, and local police surrounded the house.

``Once he made the threatening gesture with the weapon, we had to do something,'' said police spokesman Mike Simpkins.

Police said they negotiated with Williams for hours, imploring him to come out peacefully. When Williams took his phone off the hook, telephone workers installed a special connection that would let him hear police through the phone.

State police, firefighters and paramedics later joined the Suffolk police and family, friends and mental health workers.

``We asked for a negotiator - we got a whole SWAT team,'' Simpkins said of the state police.

After dark, they cut the electricity to the house, believing that Williams feared the dark.

Around 11 p.m., police lobbed several canisters of tear gas into the one-story home and exploded flash grenades.

Williams, armed with a shotgun, pistol and flashlight in the dark house billowing with noxious gas, did not respond.

Further negotiations were unsuccessful, police said.

At 3:30 a.m., two police dogs were released toward the front door. Williams fled through the back door, around his house, and into the street.

Two state troopers ordered Williams to drop his gun.

He refused, police said. The officers fired, striking Williams at least three times.

Williams was taken to Norfolk by Sentara Nightingale emergency helicopter.

Neighbors said they were were surprised and saddened by the turn of events.

From 1984 through 1990, Williams worked for the Virginia Department of Transportation in Suffolk on a crew that installed signs and striped highway lanes.

Transportation department officials did not reveal why Williams left the job, but friends say he had a dispute with his bosses.

He bounced among temporary jobs, and had recently been unemployed.

``When he lost that job, something just triggered,'' said Valerie Parker, a childhood friend and neighbor.

``Nobody was afraid of him,'' she added. ``He needs help.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Map

Area Shown: Scene of standoff

Graphic

Timeline

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: SHOOTING STANDOFF SUFFOLK POLICE DEPARTMENT

VIRGINIA STATE POLICE

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