Asheville shooting tied to retaliation

Asheville’s Biltmore Avenue shooting has become the latest test of public safety in the North Carolina mountain city, after police said the deadly downtown attack was a retaliatory act linked to earlier gun violence. The early-morning shooting on July 19 left two people dead and seven others wounded near the heart of Asheville’s downtown business and nightlife district.

Police said officers were called to the area of Biltmore Avenue and Short Coxe Avenue at about 2:20 a.m. and found multiple victims with gunshot wounds. Two people died at the scene despite lifesaving efforts, and seven others were taken to Mission Hospital. Detectives recovered numerous shell casings and described the location as a large crime scene. Interim Police Chief Jackie Stepp later said investigators concluded the attack was “a direct retaliatory act” tied to a July 5 shooting at an apartment complex, where one person was shot and an arrest was made.

Stepp called the killing “the latest chapter” in what she described as an ongoing cycle of retaliatory violence across Asheville. At a community briefing on July 24, she said police were not labeling the case gang-related, even as reporters asked whether the people involved were linked to rival gangs or families. “These are two groups of individuals,” she said, adding that the groups had connections because the people involved knew one another and had carried out “ongoing retaliatory acts” against each other.

The Asheville Police Department said several people of interest had been identified in the Biltmore Avenue case, but investigators were still working to find and interview them. Stepp declined to say whether the people shot were intended targets and would not discuss the exact connection between the July 5 and July 19 shootings, citing the active investigation. Police also said they were coordinating with local, state and federal partners while reviewing evidence and tracking upcoming events and large gatherings.