DATE: Saturday, November 29, 1997           TAG: 9711290199

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: MANASSAS                          LENGTH:   36 lines

MAN CHARGED IN PASSENGER'S DEATH AFTER CAR ENTERED STREET

A Manassas man apparently angered by a car driving down his cul-de-sac was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a passenger from that car, police said.

The shooting happened about 2 p.m. Tuesday, Prince William County police said.

They related the events this way:

Walter Lee Arrington, 30, confronted the driver and his three passengers. The driver and one passenger got out of the car, and Arrington and the driver began arguing.

When Arrington pulled out a semiautomatic handgun, the driver got back in his car and drove off, not realizing the passenger was still standing in the street.

``He starts driving away and his car window shatters, and he looks back and his friend is on the ground and Mr. Arrington is shooting at him,'' said Prince William police spokeswoman Kim Chinn.

The driver, a 22-year-old private detective from Dale City, got out of the car with a gun and returned fire, Chinn said. The driver's friend, Jason Peters, 19, of Dale City, died of a gunshot wound to the head, police said. No one else was injured. Chinn said the driver apparently violated no law in his use of a firearm.

Police arrived and took everyone in for questioning.

On Thursday night, police arrested Arrington at his home and charged him with murder, using a firearm in commission of a felony and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

He was held without bond. Police did not release the name of the driver. KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING

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