Posted on 06/13/2002 4:29:57 AM PDT by cschroe
Arrest made in Pickens assault
By Robert DeWitt
Staff Writer
June 13, 2002
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CARROLLTON | An incident touted nationally as a possible hate crime has apparently turned out to be an assault resulting from a domestic dispute.
Law enforcement officers arrested Kimberly King, 26, of Aliceville at about 6 p.m. Wednesday, Pickens County District Attorney Chris McCool said.
King is charged with attempted murder in connection with a knife attack on her boyfriend, Rodney Outlaw, authorities said. Outlaw received severe injuries to his buttocks and arms.
Initial news reports Tuesday said Outlaw was dragged behind a vehicle, bringing to mind James Byrd’s grisly murder in 1998. Byrd, a black man, was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas, in a racially motivated crime.
That turned out not to be the case with Outlaw.
Television crews swarmed around Carrollton on Wednesday although Pickens County Sheriff David Abston said there was no evidence that a hate crime occurred. He told reporters his office wasn’t ruling out the possibility of a hate crime.
Investigators had speculated that the victim being dragged behind a vehicle was one possible explanation for the injuries Outlaw sustained, Abston said.
The confusion was compounded by the lack of cooperation from Outlaw.
"He’s not forthcoming about what happened," Abston said prior to the arrest. "It’s frustrating."
Abston declined to identify the victim. But several sources have confirmed that he is Rodney Outlaw, 25, of Noxubee County, Miss. He was taken to DCH Regional Medical Center, but officials there say he is in a "confidential situation," and they can’t release any information about his condition.
Both the sheriff and the hospital were withholding information because it was thought that a sexual assault was involved. That is apparently not the case.
McCool said Outlaw and King were at a nightclub in Mississippi Saturday night. They argued outside the club and left in separate vehicles.
Outlaw apparently stopped on the roadside about two miles south of Aliceville. Outlaw told investigators that King stopped her car behind his. He said she approached him from behind and attacked him with a knife.
McCool said Outlaw went down with wounds to the arm. Once he was down, she allegedly continued to knife him in the buttocks.
The attack happened about two miles southwest of the Aliceville city limits on a long straightaway on Alabama Highway 17 near the Tombigbee River Bridge.
Outlaw originally told investigators that he was stopped on the roadside early Sunday morning when two vehicles pulled over and the people in them surprised and assaulted him, Abston said.
He apparently passed out, McCool said. A large bloodstain still marks the road where the assault occurred. When he awoke, Outlaw managed to get into his vehicle and drive nine miles to the Dancy community. He stopped at a group of houses about 100 yards from the Sumter County line.
Outlaw, who lost a large amount of blood, lay in the driveway of a residence there for two hours waiting on help.
"I don’t know how that poor man could have driven from Aliceville to here like that," said Ruth Armstrong, who owned the house on Alabama Highway 17 where he came for help.
As he lay in the yard, Armstrong said he called out for someone named Kim.
Armstrong said Outlaw awakened her and her family by honking the horn. At some point, he got out of the car and fell in her yard. More than two hours passed before help arrived.
Armstrong said Outlaw called for help and said he was "shot all up." She said she was afraid and wouldn’t go outside.
Armstrong’s daughter, Doris Cole, said an acquaintance was passing the house and saw Outlaw in the road in front of the house, with his feet in the car and his head on the pavement. Armstrong and Cole also pointed to a bloodstain on the pavement in front of their house. But they don’t know how Outlaw got his car into their driveway.
The ambulance had difficulty finding him, Cole said, because the call for help came in on a cellular telephone.
"It took the police an hour and a half to get here," Cole said. "And it took the ambulance about two hours."
The sun had already risen by the time he was taken to the hospital. Outlaw was first transported to Pickens County Medical Center and later to DCH Regional Medical Center.
Abston said officers checked on the possibility that the incident was related to the disappearance of a 34-year-old Pickens County man Gregory Ivy. The two had a mutual friend that Abston has not been able to locate. But he said the two incidents are not related.
Reach Robert DeWitt at robert.dewitt@tuscaloosanews.com or at (800) 866-6086 or (205) 345-0505, Ext. 287
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Play nice now.........!
I'm very glad to hear this wasn't what the media wanted it to be.
My hat is off to those yesterday who said this didn't sound "right"........especially the person who claimed that "men" in Alabama didn't drive cars......lol.......
Any relation to Rodney King?
Ditto. You just know they packed up their equipment and drove away feeling so let down. They heaved a collective sigh of disappointment.
Vultures.
That was a lively thread! Sure made my afternoon at the office. I live in Alabama and can attest to the fact that there are pockets of racsism. But I don't think it is necessarily more prevalent here than other places and I am convinced that racism works both ways. Jesse Jackson and his ilk have contributed to widening the gap between races - I mean - look at all the names the black population has had to describe their race - negro, black, african-american - to name a few. It seems it would so much simpler to call everyone Americans.
Bump to that.
I have lived in West Georgia most of my life, not but 25 miles or so from the Alabama border.(Fireworks!)
Whilst I'll agree that there are some country folks in Alabama, I also know that more than once the person who stopped to offer help to me stranded on the interstate had Alabama plates on their car.
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