Lynchburg man charged in fatal stabbing

A violent night in Lynchburg left one man dead and two teenagers recovering from gunshot wounds.

The two unrelated crimes — a stabbing and drive-by shooting — happened Monday evening almost two miles apart. Lynchburg investigators have made arrests in both cases, but are unsure why a fairly sedate month is ending on such a brutal note.

“It’s been relatively quiet in terms of violent crimes until last night,” said Lt. Jeff Bauserman of the Lynchburg Police Department. “There is no correlation between these two incidents.”

Investigators Tuesday interviewed nearly a dozen witnesses in the city’s third murder of the year. Christopher Michael Flood, 35, died of a stab wound to the abdomen, said Lt. Ryan Zuidema of the Lynchburg Police Department.

The 911 call at 7:10 p.m. Monday reported the stabbing in the 2900 block of Triangle Place, near Campbell Avenue. When police arrived, they found Flood lying in the grass near the street with a stab wound. He was transported to Lynchburg General Hospital, where he died.

Officers arrested William Andrew Hayward, 49, at the scene and charged him with murder.

“We are still tracking down leads,” Zuidema said. “There were at least 10 people who witnessed this incident.”

Investigators are not releasing the number of times Flood was stabbed.

“We are still looking into a motive,” Zuidema said.

This is the second stabbing death in the city this year and the third murder. A Lynchburg man was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Super 8 motel on Candlers Mountain Road on April 20 and another city man was stabbed to death on Jan. 1 on Pierce Street after an argument at a New Year’s Eve party. Police have made arrests in both incidents.

Almost two hours after Monday’s murder, a drive-by shooting left two teenagers injured.

Police received a call about a shooting in the 1000 block of Pierce Street just before 9 p.m.

There, they found a teenage girl shot in the back and a teenage boy with a superficial gunshot wound, Bauserman said. The two were sitting on the porch of a house when a car drove past and the backseat passenger fired a gun at them, he said.

Police arrested a teenage boy after he turned himself in three hours later, Bauserman said. The 17-year-old, who police are declining to identify, was charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possessing a firearm by a convicted felon, shooting from a moving vehicle, and shooting into an occupied dwelling.

The teenage girl is being treated for injuries that are not life threatening at Lynchburg General Hospital. The boy was treated at the scene by Lynchburg Fire and Rescue.

“We don’t know if they were the intended target,” Bauserman said.

He said there were between 10 and 15 people in the area when the shooting took place.

The teenage suspect was riding in the backseat of the car when police said he fired the shot. No one else currently is facing charges.

Violent crimes — defined as murder, rape, robbery, forcible sex and assault — are up 4 percent in the first six months of this year in Lynchburg compared to the same period in 2007, according to police department statistics.

There were 888 reported violent crimes from January through June last year, compared to 923 reported crimes over the same period this year.

While statistics for July are not yet available, violent crimes showed a drop from May of this year to June.  Police statistics show that, on average, the city has about 150 violent crimes reported each month. In May, 176 violent crimes were reported; in June, the number was 145.