Roanoke City Names Officer Beaten Unconscious

WSLS News Staff
Published: May 12, 2008

Updated: Monday 11:21 a.m.

Roanoke City Police say Officer Bryan L. Lawrence was the officer assaulted on Saturday night. He is still being treated at RMH for his injuries.

A police spokeswoman says the female victim assaulted in the Go Mart fight was 50-year-old Mary Gilkes.

Police arrested Foster at the intersection of Queen Avenue and Lynhurst Street.

Steele was later apprehended by a police K-9 in the 900 block of Greenhurst Avenue.

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Story by Candice Nelson

Police were called to the Go-Mart on Williamson Road at about 11:30 on Saturday night, after they say a woman was hurt in a fight.

A police spokeswoman said by the time police got there, the two suspects were already gone. Police say those two suspects were William Steele, Jr. and Dontonio Foster. When an officer caught up with them at the intersection of Huntington Boulevard and Hillcrest Avenue, it turned into a foot-chase.

Carol Herington lives on Hillcrest Avenue.

“The perpetrator ran through our driveway and hopped our fence and tore it off the garage. [He] ran through the back yard and then went through the other fence as well.“

That left a piece of evidence behind. Herington said police collected an orange shirt that was left in her driveway. She said they had to prop a fence back up where it was damaged.

Police say the officer caught up with Foster in the chase which ended in the 3400 block of Hillcrest Avenue. Police say the second suspect, Steele, assaulted the officer until he was unconscious.

Steele is charged with malicious wounding of an officer. Foster is charged with malicious wounding for the fight at the Go Mart. Both are charged with felony obstruction for not cooperating.

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Roanoke City Police officers find one of their own beaten unconscious in the street.

A spokeswoman with Roanoke City says it all started around 11:20 Saturday night. Officers were called to the Go-Mart on the 3500 block of Williamson Road because of a fight outside the store. Police say a woman was hurt in the fight and taken to the hospital. The two male suspects were gone when officers got to the store.

During the search for the suspects, an officer found the suspects at the intersection of Huntington Boulevard and Hillcrest Avenue. The officer was talking to the suspects when they ran off. The male officer was able to catch up with one of the suspects, 18-year-old William Steele Junior, in the 3400 block of Hillcrest Avenue. That is when the second suspect, 25-year-old Dontonio Foster, came back and assaulted the officer.

Other officers, who were in the area looking for the suspects, found the male officer unconscious in the 3400 block of Hillcrest Avenue. He was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital where he is being treated for his injuries. They are not releasing any information about his condition.

The suspects were found later nearby and both were arrested.

18-year-old William Steele Junior is charged with malicious wounding of an officer and felony obstruction for not cooperating.

25-year-old Dontonio Foster is charged with felony obstruction and malicious wounding for the fight at the Go-Mart where the woman was hurt.