A 48-year-old man died at UVA Hospital April 24, succumbing to injuries from a robbery and beating at the Wood Grill Buffet two weeks earlier. The robbery-turned-homicide marks the first county killing of 2007.
Albemarle Police Lieutenant John Teixeira said the man, William Godsey of Schuyler, was accompanying a female employee of the Wood Grill Buffett off Route 29N out of the building after closing around 1:30am. NBC 29 reported the woman was Godsey’s wife, Sandra. The pair were badly beaten with a blunt object by two men wearing ski masks. The suspects, one of stocky build, one thin, stole a bank deposit with a sum of cash and then escaped in a dark-colored sedan.
Police have not yet made any arrests, nor have they connected this robbery to any of the recent street robberies in the city or county.
Teixeira couldn’t comment as to whether the suspects knew the victims or had knowledge about when the restaurant’s closer would be exiting the building with cash.
Teixeira says robberies, armed and unarmed, have been on the rise in the county.
He also commented on the tragic nature of the incident: “Some people put themselves in harm’s way by maybe buying drugs, maybe doing something they shouldn’t do. …This was not this type of case at all. It’s just heart-wrenching.”
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