It was sunset along Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway in early April as two co-workers employed at a Charlottesville radio station sat chatting and overlooking the Shenandoah Valley. Suddenly shotgun blasts broke the quiet of the evening as a stranger unexpectedly opened fire on 18-year-old Christina Floyd and 27-year-old Tim Davis, striking both with shotgun pellets, and then escaping into the night.Ms. Floyd, stunned and bleeding from her injuries, eventually flagged down a passerby and escaped to call for help. Rescuers from nearby Wintergreen Ski Resort responded and scaled a 100-foot cliff at the overlook to retrieve a critically injured Tim Davis who was found lying unconscious at the bottom.
Law enforcement officials closed the Parkway for 10 miles from Afton, where I-64 crossed the mountains, to south of the crime scene. A massive manhunt began that involved the Virginia State Police, FBI, National Park Service, and the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive agency as well as deputies from Augusta and Albemarle counties.
The top-of-the-fold headline in the Waynesboro newspaper said it all, "TERROR ON PARKWAY," reflecting the apprehension felt by many in the area who were uncomfortable with a gunman on the loose. Wary residents avoided the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Forty-eight hours after it began, 56-year-old Ralph Leon Jackson of Augusta County was apprehended at his home located a short distance from Rock Point Overlook. Employed as a mechanic, he reportedly confessed to the crime.
Four days after being shot, Tim Davis, who never regained consciousness, passed away from his injuries. Ms. Floyd was released from the hospital. Ralph Jackson was charged with one count of first degree murder and one count of attempted capital murder.
What exactly happened the night of the shooting? An interview with Christina Floyd revealed grisly details of the attack as a feisty 18-year-old wrestled with the gunman, kicking and scratching and knocking the weapon out of his hands as he tried to push her over the cliff. Fighting through injuries that included shotgun pellets, skull fractures, and a broken finger, she never gave up and escaped to get help for her friend who was bloodied and crumpled on the ground from gunshot wounds.
The alleged shooter, Ralph Jackson, has a June 17 court hearing.
Life is slowly moving on for Ms. Floyd who is finishing up her senior year in high school and preparing to attend college in the fall. Local residents have returned to the beauty of the mountains, and tourists again enjoy the serenity of the Parkway, unaware of the horrid act of violence that took a young man's life and left behind a teenager who survived a nightmare.
Cross-posted at The Washington Examiner
Photo by SWAC Girl
Lynn Mitchell
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