Alleged shooter to face Grand Jury Monday
compiled from staff reports
A man charged with the shooting a JMU student in February has
been certified to appear before the Rockingham County Grand Jury
March 19.
Non-student Theodore Whitelow, 18, of Harrisonburg, is accused
of shooting sophomore Bryan Fields, 21, of Raleigh, N.C., at about
10:15 p.m. on Feb. 4 after a card game disagreement in Fields'
Hunters Ridge apartment.
During a preliminary hearing on March 6, Fields testified that
he, Whitelow and two other friends were gathered around a table
in the living room of the apartment playing cards when an argument
broke out between himself and Whitelow.
Fields claimed that Whitelow had been drinking all day and night
and was heavily intoxicated. Fields said he became upset with Whitelow
when he cut the cards improperly. Fields said a brief verbal altercation
occurred, during which Fields threw a can of soup and a telephone
book at Whitelow and told him to leave the apartment.
Fields said Whitelow then retreated to his room and returned with
a .32-caliber pistol, pointed the gun at him and fired. The bullet
entered Fields' left arm just above the elbow, passing through
the arm and into his lower abdomen. It lodged dangerously close
to his spleen, where it remains. Fields said doctors were afraid
to do surgery. He spent 10 days in Rockingham Memorial Hospital.
Whitelow fled and was apprehended 10 days later at the Greyhound
bus station in Harrisonburg.
During the bond hearing following the preliminary hearing, Commonwealth's
Attorney Marsha Garst told the judge she considered Whitelow a flight
risk and asked that bond not be granted. The judge agreed, remanding
Whitelow back to the Rockingham County Jail.
Four charges accompany the certification: malicious wounding,
possession of a firearm after being convicted of a felony, possession
of a firearm during the commission of a felony and shooting into
an occupied dwelling.
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