DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110703

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   45 lines

MAN DIES OF WOUNDS AFTER WOMAN FIRES SHOTS AT HIM IN HER HOME

A woman shot a man to death inside her home Tuesday morning after he apparently threatened her with a steak knife, police said. The woman, 43, was not charged by police, who said she acted in self-defense.

The shooting happened in the 600 block of Sirine Ave. at the corner of Jericho Road in the city's Aragona section. When police arrived at 9:43 a.m., they found the man in a bedroom suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He died in the house.

The man was identified as Charles Auvil, 66, of the 4600 block of Edwardian Court. The woman's name was not released.

Police spokesman Mike Carey said homicide detectives pieced together what happened after talking to the woman. Police gave this account:

Auvil knew the woman and her husband. He drove to their Sirine Avenue home. When the woman answered the door, Auvil told her he was there to retrieve a hair dryer that had been loaned to the couple. Auvil asked to come inside the house, but the woman refused to let him in.

When the woman went to the bedroom to get the dryer, she heard Auvil enter the home. She told him repeatedly to get out, but he refused, saying he was going to use a telephone in the kitchen.

Instead, he grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen and confronted the woman in the bedroom, Carey said.

Auvil threatened the woman while holding the knife. She took her husband's semi-automatic handgun from a nightstand drawer. When Auvil lunged at her, she fired. He sustained multiple wounds and died a short time later.

Police said the woman had received threatening phone calls in the past from Auvil, who was out on bond and awaiting trial for four counts of placing threatening telephone calls. Two of those calls involved a different victim, police said. He was scheduled to appear in court in November.

The commonwealth's attorney's office determined Tuesday afternoon that the shooting was justified and that the woman acted in self-defense. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Forensics services technician Kevin Kelly photographs a bullet hole

in the window of the home in the 600 block of Sirine Ave. in

Virginia Beach, where a man was shot to death Wednesday morning. KEYWORDS: SHOOTING FATALITY

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