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Tuesday, 13 March 2007 15:39 |
Man wounded in Arden fire
recovering, can walk again
A man who was injured while trying to save his mother from her burning house in Arden is recovering and can walk on his own, family members announced last Saturday.
Ron Souther reportedly tried twice to rescue his mother from the house, resulting in burns covering the upper half of his body.
However, Ruth Souther died in the house fire last Wednesday. She was 79 years old.
Police say that 28 percent of Ron Southerís body is burned, including his face, arms, hands, back and shoulder.
A fund to help pay his medical costs has been set up at Mountain First Bank in Arden, family members said.
Man charged with threats
to witness in assault trial
A man charged with assaulting a woman and committing several other crimes is now facing additional charges after police say he threatened one of the witnesses against him.
Police arrested Jeffrey Robert Brown, 27, of Florida Place last Friday on charges of intimidating a witness.
He had previously been charged with assault on a woman, making threats and damaging property.
Brown was being held in lieu of a $1,000 bond.
Police investigating wrecks
that left 3 seriously injured
The Asheville Police Department is investigating two separate traffic accidents that left three men hospitalized in serious and critical conditions.
The first incident took place about 10:30 p.m. last Friday, when a man was struck on Tunnel Road near the intersection with South Tunnel Road.
The man was transported to Mission Hospitals, where he remains in critical condition, a police spokesman said.
In the second accident, a driver crashed into the side of a building on Haywood Road about 2 a.m. last Saturday.
Police suspect alcohol was involved in the incident, in which driver Joshua Gasperson, 21, and his passenger, John Fullman, 21, collided with the vacant Buncombe Electric building at 215 Haywood Road, going 75 mph.
Neither man was wearing a seatbelt, officials said, and the pair were both listed as being in serious condition at the hospital.
2 teenagers face charges
related to stench in school
Two students at T.C. Roberson High School in Asheville are facing charges related to the release of a chemical repellent at the school on March 1 that sent 46 people to the hospital, according to investigators with the Buncombe County Sheriffís Department.
A spokesperson for the department announced last Thursday that one student had already been arrested and that they were in the process of charging a second student.
Investigators charged Kenneth Michael Devaynes, 16, with misdemeanor disorderly conduct causing the disruption of a school day, officials said.
The second student, an unidentified 15-year-old boy, will be charged as a juvenile.
The chemical that was released was butyl mercaptan, a repellent spray sold as the self-defense product Repulse. When released, the compound causes a pungent odor that can cause nausea, headaches and other ailments.
Authorities say the two teens passed the vial back and forth before it broke, causing 42 students and four adults to be taken to Mission Hospitals for treatment.
Both students have been suspended pending disciplinary hearings, according to Stan Alleyne, a spokesman for Buncombe County Schools.
However, he noted, school policy prohibits the specific length of the suspensions from being made public.
During the incident, the school was put on lockdown as the odor filled the schoolís front lobby. One student had to be admitted to the hospital overnight.
Adult care home resident
dies of alcohol, drug mix
A resident of an adult care home was found dead March 6, after he reportedly drank alcohol while taking a prescription drug that had not been written out to him, according to a spokesman for the company that provided him with mental health services.
William L. Fries, 49, was found dead in his bed at Canterbury Hills Adult Care Home, officials with the Buncombe County Sheriffís Department said.
He reportedly got the alcohol the night before from another resident of the facility who had been driven to a liquor store by an employee of Cleveland Family Services, which manages the group home.
That employee was terminated last Wednesday, a spokesperson for the company said.
While residents are allowed to drink alcohol, caretakers are not supposed to drive them to liquor stores, the CFS spokesperson said.
The Buncombe County Department of Social Services is investigating the death. The department has 30 days to determine whether Friesí death was the result of violations of regulations.
If it is determined that such rules were violated, the home could be fined or even lose its state-issued license to operate, though a spokeswoman for DSS said this is unlikely.
Canterbury Hills, one of 93 facilities that fall under the jurisdiction of DSS and the N.C. Division of Facilities Services, is the largest adult-care facility in Western North Carolina.
The home has about 90 residents, many of whom receive mental-health services from other providers.
Cleveland Family Services is one such provider, and its workers cared for both Fries and the woman who had purchased the alcohol the night before.
Though the exact cause of Friesí death is not yet known, officials say it was likely the result of mixing alcohol and Clonazepam, a prescription medication.
Clonazepam is a benzodiazepine, a class of drugs that affect the brain and central nervous system to create a calming effect. Clonazepam can have deadly effects when taken in conjunction with alcohol.
Fries did not have a prescription for the drug and authorities said they do not know where he got it.
Man charged with larceny
from ATM using crowbar
A Barnardsville man was arrested last week on charges that he damaged two automated teller machines using a crowbar that he had stolen from an Asheville hardware store.
Jeffrey Lee Meadows Jr., 23, now faces charges of breaking into a coin or currency machine, misdemeanor larceny and damage to real property.
Canton restaurant reopens
after possible racist attack
CANTON ó A downtown restaurant and pub reopened last Wednesday after cleaning up the damage from what officials say was a racially motivated attack March 12.
Regular patrons of the bar and musicians who perform there joined employees in cleaning up from the attack, in which assailants reportedly duct-taped owner Arun Krishnan to a chair, poured a fuel-like substance on the floor and lit a cloth on fire.
Workers at the pub say the men made racial slurs throughout the attack. Krishnan is of Indian descent and his employees are of diverse racial backgrounds.
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