Woman reports carjacking
April 30 in West Asheville

An Asheville woman reported to police that she was the victim of a carjacking in West Asheville on April 30.
She said a man got into her car at Florida Avenue and Burton Street and forced her to drive at gunpoint, Asheville police noted. She eventually escaped by jumping from the car.

Nobody has been charged and police are continuing to investigate.

Construction equipment
vandalized at Biltmore Lake

CANDLER ó Instrument gauges on construction equipment were damaged by vandals in the Biltmore Lake housing development between April 20 and 23, according to the Buncombe County Sheriffís Office.

Equipment and materials worth thousands of dollars have been either damaged or stolen, authorities said.

Other acts of vandalism and thefts have occurred in the same area in the past two years. Officials are asking anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 255-5050.

911 recording indicates
witnesses heard gunshots

Witnesses reported hearing as many as five gunshots just before a Fletcher manís car smashed into a tree at Michigan and Indiana avenues about 9:06 p.m. April 29, recordings of 911 calls made public last Thursday indicated.

A suspect has not been arrested, police said.

Three calls reportedly were received by 911 within seconds of each other just before the arrival of police. All of the callers said they heard gunshots before Craig Anthony Valentineís Isuzu Trooper crashed. He was found dead in the car with at least one gunshot wound, police said. Valentineís death is being investigated as a homicide

Hawaii man to face trial
in death of Asheville man

HONOLULU, Hawaii ó A Hawaii man was charged May 4 with manslaughter following the death of a would-be law student from Asheville on April 22.

Police say Less Schnable Jr., 21, of Nanakuli beat to death Christopher Reuther, 34, an Asheville native who was visiting Honolulu to consider attending the University of Hawaiiís law program.

The incident reportedly took place after Reuther took a photograph of Schnable without his permission.

According to police, Schnable punhed Reuther once in the area of his left ear, causing him to collapse. He died at the† Hawaii Medical Center two days later.

An April 30 atutopsy determined that he had died as a result of a traumatic hemorrhage due to blunt force trauma to the head.

Reuther had been persued by both the UH and Tulane University. UH law school students had planned to meet with him April 23 to try to recruit him into the schoolís highly competitive environmental law program.Meanwhile, TU had offered him a nearly full scholarship.

Reuther graduated from North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, N.C., and then graduated with degrees in journalism and environmental science from the University of North Carolina.

In addition to the manslaughter charge, Schnable is charged with unauthorized entry into a motor vehicle. He was held in lieu of a $100,000 bond.

Man charged with DUI,
speeding by UNCA police

UNC Asheville campus police charged Barrett Dare Locke last Friday with speeding and driving while intoxicated in an off-campus arrest.

Locke, 23, a Tulsa, Okla., native who lives at 99 Ascension Dr. in Asheville, was arrested on Riverside Drive about 8:15 p.m. by Officer Shannon Green, assisted by Assistant Chief Jerry Adams.

While Green and Adams were on routine patrol, a 2002 Nissan Pathfinder pulled out in front of the UNCA police cruiser on Founders Drive on campus, after which the officers followed it onto W.T. Weaver Boulevard and then onto Broadway Street, the report stated.

The Pathfinder then ìmade an erratic lane change and began driving at a high rate of speed,î clocked at 50 mph in a 35 mph zone, Green noted.

When the officers stopped the vehicle at the French Broad Antique Mall on Riverside Drive, Green reported detecting a strong odor of alcohol on the breath of Locke, who was identified as its owner-driver.

ìHe advised me he had been drinking the night before and then changed his story to he had drank an alcoholic beverage an hour previously,î Greenís report noted. ìAs he exited the vehicle, Mr. Locke was very unstead on his feet.î

In three field sobriety tests, Locke performed poorly. After he then tested .15 BAC on an alcosensor test, Locke was placed under arrest. He was transported to the Buncombe County Detention Center, where he registered a .13 BAC on an Intoxolyzer 5,000 test.

The judge later released Locke ó on a $500 bond ó to a sober adult. His trial date is set for June 12. ìMr. Locke was very cooperative at the time,î Green noted.