Bullet strikes woman

BRANDS FLAT — A woman lay recovering Friday in a hospital bed after blasts from a high-powered rifle sent her running bloodied down a Knox Mobile City street a night earlier.

Amy C. Moreman, 42, was hit in the arm by a bullet late Thursday and later flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center. Authorities charged Ronald Clinton Kincaid, 53, described by neighbors as the victim’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, with attempted murder in the shooting.

As Moreman, 42, was taken away, Augusta County deputies surrounded a mobile home at 113 Maine Circle, where they arrested Kincaid.

Kincaid later confessed to the shooting, according to court documents.

Neighbors — many watching NFL football on TV — said at least two shots roused them. One neighbor saw Moreman zigzag down the street looking for help.

“It will be a few days before we talk to her,” said Lt. A.C. Powers of the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office. “It looks like she is in a whole lot better shape than she was.”

According to a search warrant: “Kincaid stated he had shot ‘Amy’ with his Marlin 30-06 [rifle] ... that he shot her twice.”

Detectives quickly recovered guns from Kincaid’s home, Powers said.

“It would certainly look like he was trying to kill her,” Powers said, describing the shooting as the culmination of an alcohol-fueled domestic dispute. “We’re trying to piece it all together.”

The commotion brought neighbors out of their homes in the park just east of Staunton near Route 250 and the Augusta Regional Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“Just earlier they were out here giggling,” neighbor Ashley Dickey, 24, said.

Dickey said she was in her doorway two houses down when she heard a shot followed by screams. She said another two blasts went off and she called 911 at 9:59 p.m.

Moreman ran through a light, revealing a bloody shoulder and arm, before disappearing down a hill, Dickey said. She was soon taken away in an ambulance.

Kincaid’s next-door neighbor Jason Shiplett, 24, said the man was known to own and carry guns, like many hunters who live in the neighborhood.

The couple argued earlier Thursday night, he said.

Detectives found at least one bullet hole in the bedroom wall of a mobile home across from where the woman was shot.

“I was real close to going to bed,” said homeowner Francis Oberstreet, who was one room away from the bullet’s entry point.

Another bullet hole was found alongside Kincaid’s front door, near the beginning of a trail of Moreman’s blood that continued down Maine Circle, authorities said.

Authorities also charged Kincaid with felony use of a firearm and shooting into an occupied dwelling.