Woman with razor blade charged in bakery attacks

An Asheville woman was charged last Saturday with cutting two people with a razor blade during a robbery at City Bakery on Biltmore Avenue in downtown Asheville, police reported.

Sandra Denese Howard, 42, of Adams Hills Road was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon. Howard cut a manager’s hand and a man’s ear with a razor blade after trying to steal the tip jar, police and other sources said.

According to reports, Howard entered the bakery about 3 p.m. and asked for a job application, and then a phone book. When she then grabbed the tip jar, the manager tried to retrieve it, and the woman cut her.

A man then tried to block her exit and the suspect cut his ear. Other customers helped to detain her, while the manager and the man went to the hospital. Neither required stitches for their wounds because the razor blade was dull.

Howard’s bond was set at $20,000.

Man, 43, with nail charged
with assaulting city officer

An Asheville man was charged last Friday with attacking an officer with a nail.

As an officer attempted to arrest Bryon Leroy Dixon, 43, of 19 N. Nann St. for failure to appear in court on a second-degree trespass charge, he ran away, and while being chased tried to stab an officer with a “long sharp nail,” police reported, until he was stopped by pepper spray.

Dixon faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a governmental official, resisting and obstructing an officer and second-degree trespassing, as well as a bond set at $11,500.

2nd youth reported missing from prison in Swannanoa

Kalvin S.

RALEIGH — Officials are searching for a juvenile who failed to return from a home visit to Swannanoa Valley Youth Development Center.
Department of Juvenile Justice officials reported that the youth last was seen at noon Monday at 893 Shalimar Drive in Winston-Salem in Forsyth County.

The youth was identifed merely as Kalvin S. by the department, which cited legal restrictions against releasing the full names of juveniles.

He is at least the second youth committed to Swannanoa to escape since a new law went into effect last October requiring the DJJ to release information about escapees.

Local law enforcement has been notified of the youth’s escape and the DJJ has “a high degree of concern for the safety of both the juvenile and the public,” the DJJ noted. Those with any information on the case are being asked to call local enforcement.

UNCA police probe theft
of fitness center’s projector

UNC Asheville police are investigating the larceny of a video projector from the school’s Health and Fitness Center.
The projector was reported missing at 3:33 p.m. June 5.

In addition, campus police reported that they “cleared by arrest” a charge of possession and consumption of alcohol on a public sidewalk or street.

The alleged drinking incident occurred on the W.T. Weaver Boulevard Greenway at 4:50 p.m. June 15. No details of the identity of the suspect or suspects were released by UNCA police.

Police investigating report
of shots fired at Hillcrest

Assailants in several vehicles pulled up in front of a building at Asheville’s Hillcrest Apartments and opened fire last Wednesday afternoon, according to city police investigating the shooting incident.

Witnesses reported seeing unknown people in two or three different vehicles stop in front of the No. 8 building and shoot several rounds before driving off, say Asheville police.

Officers were sent to the scene at 4:40 p.m. to investigate reports of shots fired. No reports were received of injuries or property damage.

Tunnel Road gunfire report probed by Asheville police

A report of gunfire late last Thursday outside a Tunnel Road gas station is being probed by Asheville police.

Officers responded about 9:20 p.m. to a report of gun shots at Citizens Road Amoco, 165 Tunnel Rd. Witnesses said a woman in a dark-colored vehicle fired two shots at a white vehicle, police noted.

One round struck the canopy over the fuel pumps and the other round was not found.