The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)

A white hitchhiker was run over by a black man who wanted him to pay gas money, authorities said Monday.

Jasper County Sheriff Billy Rowles, who investigated the 1998 case of James Byrd Jr. - a black man dragged to death by three white men - said race or revenge does not appear to be behind Friday’s killing.

Ken Bimbo Tillery, 44, went to a Jasper trailer park Friday night and asked for a ride home. Blake Little, 34, and three others offered him a lift in Mr. Little’s pickup after agreeing on a price of $5 for gas, police said.

The price increased to $50 by the time they arrived in Pineland, 130 miles northeast of Houston, police said. Mr. Tillery fled and was chased.

“A couple of the guys jump him and beat up on him, then the driver of the car runs over the guy,” Sheriff Rowles said.

Mr. Little was arrested Sunday on murder charges. The sheriff said all the men were suspected of drinking and smoking crack cocaine.

Two shot at law school released from hospital

GRUNDY, Va. -

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens said.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

School Dean L. Anthony Sutin, professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree. Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged.

Schizophrenic killer flees with young son

LITTLE ROCK -

Police and relatives searched Monday for a convicted killer diagnosed with schizophrenia and his 5-year-old son.

Police said Monday they have few leads on the whereabouts of Louis Peyton Sr., 35, of Maumelle, and his son Louis Peyton Jr., who goes by Luke.

Maumelle Police Chief Sam Williams said the father apparently picked up the boy from school Wednesday afternoon.

The boy’s mother, Amber Roach, of Ozark, has not lived with him and his father for the past few years. Luke and his father live with the boy’s grandfather, who said he was afraid his son’s medication was no longer working because a doctor told him it wears off after two days.

- Edited from wire reports

Appalachian School of Law Shootings

The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)