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Stand-off ends in suicide
Man burns down home, fires at officers
By Margo Oxendine • Staff Writer
WILLIAMSVILLE - A dramatic stand-off between disturbed gunman and law enforcement and other emergency personnel came to a tragic end Tuesday, near this bucolic little outpost in northeastern Bath County.
 | | The Alleghany SWAT team, with a specially trained and equipped sniper (pictured in camouflage),spoke with a Virginia State Trooper before deploying towards the farm on Scotch Town Draft Road. The team returned after half an hour and then left after finding a state forest service road that lead to the gazebo. (Photos courtesy Glenn Coleman) |
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When it ended, the gunman, Donald R. Rice, was dead by his own hand; a beautiful farmhouse had been burned to the ground, and a Bath deputy's vehicle bore a fresh bullet hole.
It all began at 12:45 in the afternoon, when the Bath County Sheriff's Officereceived a report of a house fireon Scotchtown Draft Road. It is not known who made the call.
The property was identified as the James Rice Jr. farmhouse, a 130-year old dwelling nestled among rolling meadows and forests rife with wildlife. It is rented to visitors for $250 per night, and touted on a website, www. scotchtownfarm.com, which indicates it had been booked for guests through the summer.
 | | Spotters relayed information on Rice's movements in the gazebo to officerswho were undercover. |
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Fire departments in Millboro, Williamsville and Burnsville were notified,along with rescue squads from Burnsville and Millboro. Bath Sheriff Larry Norfleetand Major Richard Chestnut were dispatched to the scene.
By 2:15 p.m., a fireman on the scene communicated, "The house is totally engulfed! It's totally engulfed!"
As more fireand police arrived, their radios warned of further danger: "Someone on the scene here told me to get back into the truck because there are snipers here. I don't know what he means by that," an unidentified fireman was heard to say.
About 15 minutes later, Chestnut issued a plaintive plea over his radio: "Help, we are under fire! Send us help please. We're under fire. We're returning fire. We're not sure what we've done yet. Send us help. He hit my vehicle."
 | | Early in the incident, Virginia State Trooper Tommy Morris with Alleghany County walked along DeerfieldRoad with high powered scoped rifle,to get into position to observe Rice. |
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"Where are you at, Richard?" asked another official.
"We're on the hill … don't come up here. We started up here and he shot my vehicle. We returned fire. He's in the gazebo, so stay back for now… Go ahead and contact the TAC team and the state police. We'll have to get him out of here some way. I don't know what we'll have to do. I don't know what we're going to do."
Norfleetand Chestnut were in the car when it was hit.
Tuesday was not the first time law enforcement had been called to the Rice farm; in fact, they were alerted Monday that Donald Rice, a son of the late James Rice, was camping out on the farm, and was heavily armed. He was known to frequent the family property, though he lived in Augusta County, and police had been called there from time to time, as recently as six weeks ago. This time, the situation had apparently escalated.
"We received a call Monday, I don't know who from, that Donald Rice was on the property," Chestnut said Wednesday. "We have received these calls on several occasions. He would go up there to that gazebo and spend a week, or more, at a time. That was his place to go to clear his head. That was his safe place."
 | | The Alleghany SWAT team, with a specially trained and equipped sniper (pictured in camouflage),spoke with a Virginia State Trooper before deploying towards the farm on Scotch Town Draft Road. The team returned after half an hour and then left after finding a state forest service road that lead to the gazebo. (Photos courtesy Glenn Coleman) |
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The sheriff's officedid not respond to the premises Monday, but did speak by phone with Rice's brother, Jim, in Minneapolis.
Deputies familiar with Scotchtown Farm knew that, if Donald Rice was in the gazebo, then "there was no safe route to get there to that gazebo," Chestnut said. "It overlooked the whole place."
Donald Rice, 49, "suffered from manic-depression for his entire adult life," Jim Rice told The Recorder Wednesday.
 | | This photo, from scotchtownfarm.com, depicts the 130-yearold farmhouse owned by the Rice family before it was burned to the ground this week. It had been renovated into a bed and breakfast, and was booked with visitors through this summer so tourists could enjoy the 300-acre property along Scotchtown Draft. Rice's brother Jim says he intends to rebuild the place. |
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According to Dean Heffler,who served as caretaker of Scotchtown Farm, trouble first reared its head Sunday night, when Donald Rice "moved up into the gazebo with a lot of weapons. He had built himself a bunker." A couple from Nantucket, R.I., who had been vacationing at the farm, notified Hefflerand told him they didn't feel safe, Hefflersaid. "I escorted them off the property Monday morning," he explained.
Donald Rice had left a note for his wife, Sherry, Sunday night, stating his intentions to kill himself, Hefflersaid. "He had threatened several times, that I know of, to burn the house down and to kill himself." He added, "I have known Donald, off and on, for years. I didn't know him well. His wife told me he had been off his meds for some time. She said this is the third time in two months that he has left her a note and gone off; this time, he got serious."
 | | Command and control coordination with various emergency service departments was a complex issue in the early stages of the incident, and here Bath County emergency operations coordinator Andy Seabolt takes charge of emergency personnel, Hot Springs firefighters, Millboro rescue squad workers, rescue squad member Mike Spurgeon (arms crossed) and onlookers in order to ensure their safety. |
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Jim Rice said his brother "had stopped taking his medications a while ago. Bipolar disorder has an extremely high mortality rate, and it claimed my brother yesterday. I'm glad that no one else was hurt."
On Tuesday morning, Heffler and a friend, Roger Thompson, went back to Scotchtown Farm with a load of mulch. Donald Rice was still in the gazebo - a glassed-in octagonal building stocked with food and supplies. They were not aware that, on this day, Rice had also fortified the place with sandbags.
 | | Bath county deputies, stationed behind a fence along a pasture east of the Sutherland house, used high powered binoculars to observe Rice in the gazebo. |
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"I checked on the house Tuesday morning," Hefflersaid. "Everything was fine. Then, Curtis Chandler went up there turkey hunting, and after Curtis left, Donald apparently came down the hill (from the gazebo) and set the house on fire. Then, he went back to the gazebo and waited."
As emergency fire, rescue and police vehicles arrived at the scene, Rice made his presence known. Norfleetand Chestnut arrived at approximately 1:37 p.m. No one was injured in the exchange of gunfirebetween Rice, Norfleetand Chestnut.
At 6 p.m., Rice was still in the gazebo. At that time, Norfleetreported, "We are going to be sending a team up to see if we can communicate with him, talk to him, bring him out … I spoke with the brother that owns the property and he and I discussed leaving him up there until he came down himself."
Norfleetsaid Rice had an arsenal. "We know of at least one high-powered rifle.(There is) some indication he has several other weapons … many weapons."
 | | Virginia State Trooper Anthony Nicely of Alleghany County leads Sherry Rice to a vehicle where she tried to call her husband on a cell phone. |
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Chestnut said Wednesday, "This is the first time I've been shot at, and I hope it is the last," adding, "This was a bad situation any way you look at it."
Norfleettold bystanders Tuesday, "My chief deputy and I were on the way up to speak to him and he fired two rounds, one striking the vehicle that we were in. At that time, we backed off and got all the proper people here to handle the situation."
More help arrived from the sheriff's office,and the Virginia State Police, including Trooper Gregg Stump of Highland County. Eventually, officersfrom Bath animal control, and Virginia game warden Jerry Jones made their way to the scene. Andy Seabolt, Bath's emergency services coordinator, arrived to help organize and coordinate the responders.
As the situation escalated, the Virginia State Police Tactical (or SWAT) Team was called to the scene, along with similar units from the Alleghany County Sheriff's Officeand Staunton Police Department. Officersfrom the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement Division, and the Augusta County Sheriff's Department Task Team "responded to render any assistance they could," the Bath sheriff's officereported.
 | | The gazebo gave Rice a clear 360 degree vantage point. Smoke from the house, burned to the ground because the firedepartments had to leave the scene, can be seen rising on the right. (Photos courtesy Glenn Coleman) |
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SWAT teams and crack marksmen took up strategic positions in the surrounding fields and forest. A Lifeguard 10 helicopter was called to stand by near the scene, for possible evacuation of injured persons. The Hot Springs Fire and Rescue Auxiliary arrived with sandwiches, coffee and cold drinks.
The standoff lasted six hours. Dusk was falling around 7:30 p.m. when the tactical team surrounded the gazebo and discovered Rice dead from a gunshot wound. Medical Examiner Dr. Jim Redington was called to the scene and determined that the wound was self-inflicted. Rice had stepped just outside the gazebo doors, and shot himself in the mouth. The exact time of death is still undetermined.
 | | Deerfield Road was packed with county rescue squad and firedepartments as well as law enforcement and SWAT teams from Bath County and surrounding counties. |
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By all accounts from bystanders, the scene was chaotic.
Hefflernoted, "With a mess like that, it is hard to say what really happened, or when he actually took his own life," adding, "Donald could have shot me or Roger or Curtis Chandler at any time; he had no intention of harming anybody other than himself."
The Rev. Glenn Coleman, pastor of Hot Springs Presbyterian Church, was pressed into service as a reporter Tuesday afternoon. Coleman's wife, Cynthia, is on The Recorder staff. When she began to hear reports of the Scotchtown Farm fireon the scanner in her office,she asked her husband, who was headed that way, to go by and get a photograph. He arrived just behind the Hot Springs Rescue Squad, sometime around 1 p.m., he said Wednesday.
 | | Virginia State Troopers and Bath County deputies confer with a local resident about the Rice family. (Photos courtesy Glenn Coleman) |
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Glenn Coleman expressed an opinion much like that of Heffler."Mr. Rice had ample opportunity and weapons to do whatever he wanted, but I don't think his heart was in it at all."
From his vantage point about a half-mile away from the scene, Coleman could see the gazebo.
"We had to be careful, because he had riflesthat could reach that far," Coleman said. "The police kept us out of the way." He added, "I never heard a shot fired, not even the final one."
Coleman could see smoke from the firedrifting through the air, but said a Millboro EMS responder "told me the house was already burned to the ground. What we were seeing were the smoky remains."
Because all fireand rescue personnel, and bystanders, were not allowed more than a half-mile near the gazebo, it was impossible to save the structure.
Coleman, who spent about six hours at the scene, also noted, "The police said they believed (Rice) had a scanner up in the gazebo with him. In fact, they used an EMS channel to send him a message to lay down his guns and come out with his hands up, but they got no response."
 | | Spotters relayed information on Rice's movements in the gazebo to officerswho were undercover near the gazebo at various places on the farm. |
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There were also reports at the scene that Rice's wife tried to reach him on a cell phone; she, too, did not receive a response.
The unfolding and uncertain events took an emotional toll on bystanders, according to Coleman.
"The thing that struck me most was the stress of his neighbors," he said. "They were just so sad. This was a person they liked. He was a neighbor who was very personable to them - a friend. They had a lot of emotion. They were really afraid that this was going to end up with him dead, regardless; they were kind of resigned to that fact."
When Rice was, indeed, discovered dead, Coleman said, "You could see a visible relief from the tension of the day on everyone's faces. At the same time, the police were somber and quiet; they went about their jobs efficiently and professionally."
Now, it remains for Rice's family and friends to mourn, to wonder why, to rebuild.
Jim Rice said Wednesday, "Bath County is my home. I will rebuild a farmhouse even better than the wonderful house that was there yesterday. Don had a lot of good along with the bad. I wish things had turned out better for him. Based on Don's experience with the Virginia mental health system, I don't think it is very effective. Don could have been stopped at many points along his path to oblivion."
- With reporting by
Cynthia Coleman and Anne Adams
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