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Tuesday, 05 December 2006 17:38 |
Bomb threat sends Asheville High students home early
Asheville High students were sent home early last Monday after 911 dispatchers received a bomb threat.
Police later searched the entirety of the school with bomb-sniffing dogs, but found no explosives.
The unidentified caller claimed that there was a bomb in the school and that it was a terrorist attack, before pleading with the dispatcher to send help and hanging up.
The call, made at 1:34 p.m., resulted in the school evacuating the students to the high school football field.
About an hour later, the students were dismissed for the day.
Man charged with assault
on policeman at terminal
An Asheville police officer was physically assaulted in broad daylight at a downtown bus terminal about 10:40 a.m. Nov. 28.
The attacker was a man who was loitering at the Coxe Avenue depot and not intending to ride a bus, police said.
Police charged Nsayi Bianani Nswadi, 31, with assaulting an officer to inflict serious injury, resisting a public officer and damaging personal property after he reportedly struck Officer Butch Oxner in the left eye, head, elbows and knees.
Oxner was investigating a civil disturbance at the time and asked Nswadi to leave the station, according to police.
Asheville City Council recently increased security at the Coxe Avenue depot as part of an effort to promote ridership during a 90-day, fare-free promotional period that ended Nov. 11. As part of that effort, council had authorized spending $35,000 to hire a nighttime security officer.
Nswadi, a Charlotte resident, was being held in lieu of a $12,000 bond at the Buncombe County Detention Center.
Stabbing at Erwin High
termed hoax by authorities
A reported stabbing at Erwin High School last Friday that prompted some parents to withdraw their children from classes for the day turned out to be a hoax, according to investigators.
A 17-year-old lied when he said another student cut him with a knife, authorities said.
Instead, the 11th-grader slipped and fell onto some equipment outside the school and later blamed the 3-inch gash to his arm on another student, Buncombe County sheriffës Lt. Dale DenOuden reported.
Officials would not identify the teenager, who was treated and released at Mission Hospitals.
The youngster is more likely to face school penalties than criminal ones, authorities said. However, detectives ultimately will determine whether to charge the student with giving false statements to law enforcement.
School officials planned to meet this week to determine discipline of the student in the stabbing hoax.
About 200 students, who were inside and outside the building, were brought to the cafeteria before the start of classes Friday morning after the alleged stabbing was reported. After the hoax was discovered, classes then ran as scheduled later that morning.
However, phones reportedly rang incessantly in the school offices, as concerned parents called, inquiring about any danger.
Police interview suspect in Erskine Street shooting
The Asheville Police Department has interviewed its suspect, who at press time is still unidentified, in the recent shooting of an Erskine Street Apartments resident.
However, police officers have not yet arrested the man and reportedly plan to confer with the district attorneyës office.
Police have also stated that the suspect poses no threat to the public.
They have also not been able to talk to the victim of the shooting, which took place last Sunday afternoon.
The victim, who was shot in the shoulder while in someone elseës apartment, is still being treated for his injuries, but they are not believed to be life-threatening.
There is no word yet from law enforcement officials about what led to the shooting.
Criminal vandalism reported
at UNC Asheville dormitory
UNC Asheville campus police reported an incident of vandalism about 5:45 a.m. this past Monday at the Founders Hall dormitory. The incident is under investigation.
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