North Buncombe student
critical after car accident

WEAVERVILLE ó A North Buncombe High School junior was listed in critical condition after being hit by a car on his way home from work early Saturday morning.

Juan Aguirre-Mendez, 17, was driving his scooter home from working at KFC on Weaver Boulveard when he was struck by Norman Allen Whitted, 40. The accident took place on Monticello Road.

Aguirre-Mendez was taken to Mission Hospitalsí neuro/trauma intensive care unit.

Whitted, a Hickory resident, was arrested by N.C. State Highway Patrol on charges of felony hit and run, failure to stop and assist an injured person, driving under the influence and consuming alochol in the passenger area.

He is being held under $27,500 bond.

13-year-old girlís birthday
erupts in gunfire; 3 injured

Three youths were shot early last Sunday during a birthday party in Montford for a 13-year-old girl.

One of the victims, 12-year-old Eric Penland Jr., was hit in the head and was taken to Mission Hospitals where he was listed in critical condition.

Penland is a sixth-grader at Asheville Middle School.

Two girls, both 17, also were shot. One girls was hit in the arm and the other was hit in the leg, officials said.

Investigators say they believe the incident was the result of gang activity and that the three youths who were shot were not the intended targets.

They also said they think there was only one shooter, who was on foot.

Police received several emergency phone calls around 12:24 a.m. about a shooting at a home on Courtland Avenue, including a call from City Councilman Brownie Newman.

Mildred Edgerton, who had given the party for her daughter, said the shooting started in the street in front of her home after a confrontation between a group of children leaving the party and another group of people who had arrived as it was ending.

Edgerton said she tried to break up the fight, and make everyone leave. When the shooting started, she said, her son grabbed her and they ran into the house to call 911.

The victims were among the 30-40 people who had been invited to the teenagerís party, Edgerton said.
However, witnesses said as many as 150 people were gathered outside the home during the party, even making it difficult for an ambulance to reach the scene.

Emergency workers were finally able to get to Penland about 30 minutes after they arrived, according to Edgerton.

Det. Forrest Weaver of the Asheville Police Department said that he and an emergency medical service worker tended to the youth as soon as they found him and carried him to an ambulance.

At a press conference last Monday, community religious leaders expressed grave concerns about what some say is an epidemic of gun violence in the area.

Other recent gun incidents include the shooting death of Craig Anthony Valentine, 22, on April 29; a gunfight at Calypso II Restaurant and Club that left Jermaine Djon Thompson, 24, dead on May 11; and the July 23 shooting spree at Stephens-Lee Recreation Center that injured three people at a basketball game.

Ministers and other community leaders plan to hold a rally at 1 p.m. Thursday at Tried Stone Missionary Baptist Church to address ways to stop the violence, said Alphonso McGlen, pastor of St. James AME Church.

Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact the Criminal Investigations Division at 259-5910. Those wishing to make anonymous tips can also contact Hill Street Baptist Church at 254-4646 or St. James AME Church at 253-5191.

Former Arbyís worker sues,
alleges sexual harassment

The Arbyís restaurant on Leicester Highway faces a federal lawsuit after a former manager filed a complaint over allegations that she was sexually harassed and then fired when she complained about it.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the suit, saying that a male general manager subjected Melissa Jackson and other female employees to sexually offensive remarks, touching and gestures.

The suit against The Winning Team Inc., which manages the franchise, will be heard in U.S. District Court.
According to the commission, the companyís management knew, or reasonably should have known, that the abuses were taking place and failed to stop the behavior.

Furthermore, the commission claims that Arbyís fired Jackson when she complained about it.

If these allegations are true, they would be a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ed McCammon, president of The Winning Team, denied the allegations and said he had not heard of the complaint and has not been served with the suit.

The company operates 33 Arbyís restaurants in North Carolina.

McCammon said he was aware Jackson had filed a wrongful-termination complaint, but thought the matter had been resolved more than a year ago. He denied her termination was related to sexual harassment.

The suit seeks monetary relief for Jackson and other female employees, as well as a court injunction preventing Arbyís from engaging in discriminatory practices.

City sees boost in crimes;
rape reports triple last year

Asheville and several other cities in Western North Carolina experienced a marked increase in violent crimes last year, according to an annual report by the FBI.

In Asheville, violent crimes were up 9 percent ó almost seven times the national average but still better than some similar-sized cities in North Carolina.

Among the reportís findings, rape reports increased from 16 in 2005 to 49 last year.

However, property crimes ó the most common category ó were down by 28 percent. As a result, the overall crime rate in the city has actually decreased by 20 percent.

In one recent violent incident, a gunman fired shots inside a recreation-center gymnasium, hitting two people, on July 23.

Asheville Police Chief Bill Hogan blamed the increase in violent crimes on drug-related activity carried out by emerging gangs in the city.

He attributed the rise in gang activity to the areaís growing population ó particularly among young people.
Hogan also said that the increase in rape reports could reflect a greater willingness on the part of victims to report rapes.

The report, which is released by the FBI every year, surveys data submitted by 11,723 law-enforcement agencies over at least six months through the Uniform Crime Reporting program.

Nationwide, violent crime is up 1.3 percent, while property crime declined 2.9 percent.

In Asheville, property crimes went from 5,266 reported in 2005 to 4,099 in 2006.

Meanwhile, Hendersonville, the areaís second-largest town, saw a decrease of 1.8 percent in violent crimes. Weaverville saw a decline as well, and Waynesvilleís violent crime rate stayed the same as in 2005.

Sylva saw nine additional violent crimes and Franklin had a 25 percent increase, up by two crimes from the previous year.

In Brevard, the number of violent crimes almost doubled from 17 to 33.

However, Brevard Police Chief Dennis Wilde noted that given the townís population of 6,776, this was still well below the national average.

He also said that violent crimes in many small WNC communities are typically committed by people who know their victims, so the crimes are quickly solved and rarely random.

Ed Eads, a crime analyst with the Asheville Police Department, noted that given Ashevilleís population, the city still has one of the lowest violent-crime rates in the country, even with the increase.

Statewide, the average for all crimes is 4,650 per 100,000 people, according to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation. Ashevilleís crime rate is 4,572 per 100,000 people.

Police ask for help finding suspect
in robbery of Hendersonville bank

HENDERSONVILLE ó Police are asking the public for help finding a man suspected of robbing a BB&T Bank at 100 Dana Rd. on Sept. 24.

Officers responded to the bankís alarm at 11:21 a.m. and discovered that a man had entered the bankís main entrance and demanded money from a teller.

Hendersonville police say he drove away in an older-model blue and white pickup truck, which was parked in front of the building.

He is descibed as white and 6 feet tall with a medium build and short sandy blond hair. He is probably in his mid-20s, police say.

During the robbery, he was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with blue stripes on the sleeves and shoulders, blue jeans and sunglasses.

Anyone with information about the suspect can call CrimeStoppers at 697-STOP.

Mobile home where man was killed
was deliberately set on fire, police say

SWANNANOA ó The mobile home where a man was killed Sept. 20 was deliberately set on fire early Sept. 25, authorities say.

The mobile home on Grovemont Avenue and Old U.S. 70 was the site of a shooting that left Vincenzo Luther, 23, dead.

The Buncombe County Sheriffís Department arrested Embra Alvin Tucker, 48, on a murder charge Sept. 24, and charged the homeís tenant, Michael Ray Guzman, 48, with obstructing justice.

According to the Asheville-Buncombe Arson Task Force, the fire started in the homeís living room and destroyed the trailer, despite being discovered fairly early.

However, the crime scene had already been processed, and officials say the fire had no effect on the investigation into Lutherís death.

Landlord Jim Thomas said the mobile home had been at the center of drug activity in the area and that he intends to have it hauled away.

Anyone with information about the fire can call CrimeStoppers at 255-5050.