Car chase leads to closing
of two Buncombe schools

Two Buncombe County schools were locked down briefly last Monday after a driver led police on a car chase.
The three-mile chase began just before noon and reached speeds of at least 70 mph in a 55-mph zone, officials said.

It started at a BP gas station on Merrimon Avenue and ended in a vacant lot on Buncombe School Road, when Timothy Cole, 27, ditched his van and ran into the woods.

School officials locked down Windy Ridge Elementary School and North Buncombe Middle School following the chase.

Cole has an extensive criminal record, according to police. His brother Jason Cole remained seated in the van when Timothy Cole ran away and was not arrested.

Cole is still on the loose, but warrants have been issued against him for felony speeding to avoid arrest, reckless driving, driving in excess of 15 miles per hour over the legal speed limit and running a red light.

Authorities are also expected to issue warrants for having a fictitious license tag and driving with a suspended license.

3 escape juvenile prison;
2 captured, 1 still missing

Two of three prisoners who escaped from the Swannanoa Youth Development Center last Friday were found Saturday morning, while a third remains missing.

The two youths were discovered hiding on the prison campus, according to officials. The Black Mountain Police Department and the Buncombe County Sheriffís Department reportedly assisted the Department of Health and Human Services during the search.

State officials would not release any other information about the escapees, citing state laws that forbid them from releasing information about escapees.

Meanwhile, news of the escape led Buncombe County School administrators to seal off areas around Buncombe Community, Owen Middle and Williams Elementary schools for 30 to 45 minutes. All three schools are near the prison.

2 Hendersonville officers
suspended following raid

HENDERSONVILLE ó Two police officers were suspended following a raid of the wrong house last week, according to Mayor Greg Newman.

Lt. Tim Griffin and Lt. David Adams, both veterans of the Henderson Police Department, were suspended after a SWAT team entered the wrong residence during a May 12 raid, police officials said.

Sandra Braswell, the resident whose house was raided, said that officers threw two smoke grenades into the home while her 16-year-old grandson and six of his friends were having a party about 1:30 a.m.

Armed officers then ordered her and the teenagers to the floor and threatened her 11-year-old granddaughter, she said.

Report of masked gunman
forces school to lock down

BETHEL ó Bethel Elementary and Bethel Middle schools were locked down for an hour last Thursday afternoon after a group of students reported seeing a man wearing a white hood and carrying a gun in a nearby cemetery.

The second-grade boys said they saw the man in the cemetery adjacent to the school, according to a spokesman for Haywood County Schools.

The two schools, which share a campus and have a student body of 800, were locked down about 2 p.m.

Though four Haywood County Sheriffís deputies searched the area, no evidence of the man was discovered and officials say there were inconsistencies in the childrenís stories.

School officials notified parents of the lockdown by telephone and some children were dropped off 10 to 15 minutes late.

Man, charged with assault
on officer, attempts escape

A man who was charged May 7 with assaulting a police officer now faces additional charges of attempting to escape from the Buncombe County jail, according to warrants.

Gregory Shaumon Rosenberg, 30, of Regan Lane was initially arrested during a license checkpoint at which he allegedly grabbed an officerís arm and attempted to drive off. The attempted-escape charges were added on May 8.

In addition to the assault and attempted-escape charges, Rosenberg is accused of speeding 90 mph in a 35-mph zone, fleeing arrest in his car, hit and run causing property damage to two telephone poles, reckless driving and driving with a revoked license.

He was being held in lieu of a $9,000 bond.

In other police action on May 8:

ï Charles Kyle Dolson, 16, was arrested by Black Mountain police on charges of breaking and entering a home. Police say he stole a Playstation 3.

The resident of the Old U.S. 70 area was being held in lieu of a $5,000 bond.

ï Vance William Keeter Jr., 17, was arrested by Black Mountain police on a breaking-and-entering and larceny charge for allegedly stealing a Playstation 3 from a home.

Keeter, a resident of Blue Ridge Assembly Drive, was being held in lieu of a $5,000 bond.

ï Brandon Lee Hensley, 20, was arrested by the Buncombe County Sheriffís office on a charge of auto theft and obtaining property by fraud.

Officials say the resident of Upper Herron Cove Road in Weaverville stole a car and then tried to sell it to a salvage yard.
Hensley was being held in lieu of a $4,000 bond.

ï Elizabeth Joyce Carmen, 40, was arrested by the Buncombe County Anti-Crime Task Force on four charges of obtaining prescription drugs by fraud. She was released without bond.

ï Michael James Meeks, 21, of Pisgah Highway in Candler was arrested by the N.C. Department of Motor vehicles on a charge of common-law forgery.

He was being held in lieu of a $2,000 bond.

ï Shayrone Renard Thompson, 20, was arrested by UNC Asheville campus police on charges of attempting to buy a car with a worthless check.

The Montford Avenue resident was released without bond.

ï Heather Johnson Woods, 20, of Lindsey Road in Candler was arrested by Asheville police on charges of hit and run causing injury, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving with a revoked license and failure to stop at a red light.

She was being held in lieu of a $1,000 bond.

ï Roberto Arreola Villa, 29, of North Ridge Drive was arrested by the N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles on charges of obtaining a driverís license with a false birth certificate, obtaining a license by fraud and two counts of obtaining property by fraud.

Officials say he attempted to buy and sell two cars under false names.

Villa was released without bond.

Jackson hitchhiker given 7 years for raping woman

SYLVA ó A Jackson County man last Thursday was sentenced to at least seven years in prison for raping a woman who stopped to give him a ride to his house.

Bruce McDonald, 37, was found guilty of felony second-degree rape by a jury following his two-day trial.

McDonald raped the 35-year-old woman on June 10. He flagged down the woman for a ride about a mile from his house. When they arrived there, he raped her in the front seat of her car, according to testimony.

DNA evidence found in the car enabled prosecutors to convict McDonald.