Two men tell of chasing shooter

As the investigation continued into Friday night's shooting of two VCU students, two men recounted yesterday how they chased the masked robber through the streets until he slipped away.

Police said the two Virginia Commonwealth University students were shot during an attempted robbery about 11:20 p.m. on Goshen Street between West Broad and West Marshall streets in downtown Richmond.

J.R. Throckmorton, 31, said he heard two gunshots and a woman screaming while he was sitting on a nearby porch with his roommate, Jason Sharpe, 23.

They ran toward the commotion, and Throckmorton saw a man pacing in the street holding a gun he had taken from the robber, he said. He saw another man slumped against a wall, pale and bleeding profusely.

"I didn't think he was going to make it," Throckmorton said.

He and Sharpe said they first tried to help the bleeding man, but that police closed in quickly and cleared bystanders from the area.

An 18-year-old student was shot in the neck and critically injured, and a 20-year-old student was shot in the thigh, police Lt. Jan McTernan said yesterday.

Two officers applied pressure to the 18-year-old's wound, possibly saving his life, McTernan said.

With police tending to the victims, Throckmorton and Sharpe chased the robber east through an alley and north along Gilmer Street before he slipped away.

Brenda Sporbert, a neighbor, said yesterday that she heard the robber run past and then saw Throckmorton and Sharpe.

"I want that guy to be caught," she said.

The two men returned to the shooting scene and talked to bystanders.

Throckmorton said the student who had been shot in the leg, seated in the back of an ambulance, gave him the following account of what had happened:

The two students were walking with another man and a woman when an armed man in a ski mask told them to put everything they had in a bag he was holding.

The other student -- the one who was critically injured -- kneed the robber and a struggle started. Two shots were fired.

The third man told Sharpe that he had wrestled the gun from the robber, Sharpe said.

The robber initially ran away but quickly returned and tried to get the gun back. Then he took off running again.

Police declined to comment on Throckmorton and Sharpe's version of events, citing the ongoing investigation.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims, and updates on their medical conditions were unavailable yesterday. No arrest had been made.

Explaining their decision to chase the robber, Throckmorton and Sharpe said they were angered that a coward with a gun would prey on college students.

Throckmorton sounded apologetic that they failed to catch the assailant, and he said he and Sharpe were praying for the student who was gravely wounded.

"If I would have gotten my hands on that guy," Throckmorton said, "God help him, I would have killed him myself."
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .